The Son of Neptune
by vernus
Summary: What Percy found - a new camp, new friends, new life. He's trying to remember his old life, but he's got almost no recollection - until Hera intervenes to remind him of what he cannot forget. My take on a sequel to TLH. R&R :
1. The Museum

**Author's note: I know that this might seem unoriginal to readers, but there's a reason for it. Please give this a chance :) Will get better. R&R.**

The surroundings were blurry and unfamiliar – a rush of white and gray, then he tried to make sense of the situation he was in.

He was in a museum - the history kind, with tall gray statues and fancy information boards everywhere. He was standing in the middle of a group of students, all of who were listening intently to the teacher, a stiff-looking gray-haired woman. She looked familiar, and he tensed, not quite sure where or when he had seen her before. She glanced his way, and her bottom lip curled. He had zero idea of where he was, who he was, or what was happening, but at the same time there was a persistent sense of déjà vu.

What was his name? He thought furiously to himself – then it came. Percy – something. He looked back at the teacher, who now seemed oblivious to him. "Hurry up, Percy." The guy standing beside him said, nudging him. The group moved off, and Percy took a quick glance at the group of people he had somehow ended up with. There was an assortment of people, but they were all teenagers – his age, Percy presumed. How old was he? Sixteen? He couldn't remember anything.

Percy trailed behind the group, looking around him in bewilderment. The teacher woman kept throwing glances at him, which was getting creepy. The guy who nudged him earlier walked beside him – he was short, walked a little weird and had a peculiar accent. Yet, he was talking to him as if he had known him for months. Percy started to wonder if he had amnesia – there was no other explanation for the situation he was in. Everyone knew him, yet he couldn't remember anything. Aside from the teacher, nobody did anything out of the ordinary to him.

They passed by a tall statue on a pedestal. The teacher woman cleared her throat and said clearly, "Percy Jackson."

Jackson – so that was his surname.

"Yeah?" Percy replied, feeling uncomfortable. How could she know his surname before he did?

"Who is that statue of?" The woman asked him.

Percy glanced up at the statue. It was a tall man in battle armor, with a strong and determined face. In his hands he held a trident. Percy racked his brains, but came up with nothing. Yet, something told him he knew who it was. The mind cloud was starting to get irritating.

Percy shook his head. "I don't know."

Everyone glanced at him as if he were stupid, but the teacher frowned as if disappointed.

"Mrs Dodds?" A girl raised her hand, and the teacher – Mrs Dodds – nodded at her. "It's Neptune."

"Correct. Neptune is his Roman name, and Poseidon the Greek name," Mrs Dodds said. She gave Percy a steely look. "Write it down." She was referring to the worksheet Percy was holding in his hands. Where did he get it from anyway?

Percy reached into his pocket, searching for a pen, and fished out a ballpoint pen. He uncapped it, poising the pen to write.

The pen lengthened and turned into a long bronze sword. Percy stared at the sword in confusion as it passed clean through the paper. He looked up, hoping that nobody had seen him. Too late, Mrs Dodds was glaring daggers at him from the corner of the group. Percy was completely in the dark about what had happened, so he touched the cap of the pen to the tip of the sword and it morphed back into a ballpoint pen. Percy stared at the pen carefully in amazement. What was this?

Mrs Dodds approached him. Her eyes were like burning furnaces. "What are you doing here?" She scowled. She didn't like the blade. "Keep that!"

Finally, someone who realized he didn't belong. Percy almost passed out from relief, but that wouldn't have been cool. He put the pen back in his pocket. "I don't know," he said. "I have no idea where this place is, and I need to get out of here."

Mrs Dodds raised one eyebrow. "You think I'm going to let you escape so fast, honey?"

Huh? Was Percy's only thought. And then: Her voice sounds familiar.

"Why did you pretend not to know who was it on that pedestal?" She hissed. "What are you up to this time? If you are intercepting my mission, Pluto will have your soul."

"I really don't know," Percy said uneasily. "Look, back off." Mrs Dodds ignored his words and continued marching forwards.

"You caused us enough trouble the last time, honey," she snarled. "You think that because you're the saviour of Olympus, you will be spared this time?"

Saviour of Olympus? Nothing Mrs Dodds was saying made sense. Percy desperately tried to organize his thoughts – or lack thereof, thinking of how to phrase things. Just then, the guy who thought he was Percy's friend from earlier appeared. The rest of the group had apparently moved into the next room. "Percy? Is there a problem?" He glanced apprehensively at Mrs Dodds.

_Of course not, _thought Percy sarcastically. _I'm only stuck on a school trip with a bunch of people I don't know, lost all my memories, and been harassed by a crazy teacher who calls me the savior of Olympus. Nothing's wrong. _

He didn't have time to say anything, because Mrs Dodds was changing form – her eyes retracted in their sockets, her fingers turned into scaly sharp talons, her skin grew gray and wrinkled. With one fluid motion, she was a horrifying winged creature, and she lunged at him with her razor-sharp talons. As if on instinct, Percy leapt to one side, effectively dodging.

"Uncap your sword!" shouted the guy who thought he was Percy's friend. Again. How was it that he knew about the sword when Percy himself didn't? He scrambled in his pocket for the sword while running in the other direction, but Mrs Dodds was airborne and she managed to get her talons around his neck. Percy waited for his inevitable death.

However, her talons deflected right off his skin as if repelled. Percy thrust his sword at her and she dissipated into mist at once.

Percy was still absolutely clueless as to what had happened.

The guy who thought he was Percy's friend stepped forward. "I recognized her from the start," he said. "C'mon, let's go."

"Whoa, hold on a sec," Percy said. "Wait up. What's going on? Who are you?"

"My name's Bobby, and I'm your protector," said the guy simply. He was a Hispanic guy with a foreign accent. Percy's brain, however, wasn't absorbing any of what Bobby was telling him. "And you have to follow me unless you want to face more of that." That obviously referring to what Percy had just witnessed.

Percy kept the sword, sighing. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into. Bobby led Percy out the back door of the museum and on the next bus, and they were off, leaving the class under the guidance of some guy who seemed to think he was their history teacher.


	2. Captured

A group of people were waiting behind the museum.

Percy emerged out of the back of the museum – the _San Francisco Museum of Roman Mythology _– with Bobby the foreign guy, only to find himself surrounded by a group of 5 teenagers.

There were three girls and two boys, all standing in defensive positions facing him, their backs to the thin forest behind. The one nearest to him, upon seeing him, slackened her stance and stood straight up. She was pretty in a regal sort of way, with her long wavy black hair clipped up warrior princess-style, and although they were all in casual clothing it was obvious she was dressed more finely.

She didn't seem like Percy's cup of tea. His negative first impression of her was intensified by the first words out of her mouth. "So this is he?" She scoffed, looking at Bobby. "The guy we've been sent to retrieve?"

Bobby nodded, and the girl laughed. It wasn't a pleasant tone. "They send out five warriors of the First Legion and one first-class protector – to collect this pathetic specimen?" She walked up close to Percy and looked him up and down from head to toe. "I'd expected a little more."

At her scornful words, Percy spoke. "And who exactly do you think you are?" He looked straight into her eyes – she was the same height as him. His hand reached into his pocket, and the girl's mouth curved into a smirk.

"I'm Dakota Seymore, daughter of Pluto," she replied confidently. "Who are you?"

There was a silence. All five of them were staring at him cautiously with the exception of Bobby who was nervously staring downwards, his eyes darting left and right. Who was Pluto? Percy had no idea how to respond to her statement, because he didn't know what was its significance.

"I don't know," said Percy, honestly.

Dakota Seymore laughed arrogantly. "I thought they were sending us out to fight a tough fight. We'd better bring him to Madame Lupa now." She turned to rally up the others, who were slowly closing in, obviously much more relaxed. They were clearly disappointed.

Percy pulled out his ballpoint pen. "Wait."

"Yes?" Dakota turned around. She saw him standing with his pen, and laughed. "What you gonna do? Write on me?"

Percy had heard that somewhere before, but he knew it was hopeless trying to recall and let it slide. "No." He uncapped the pen and showed her his bronze sword.

Bobby, beside him, tensed. "You don't want to challenge Dakota to a swordfight."

Percy didn't know where he got the confidence from, but he felt prepared. Somehow, he knew that he'd fought before. He walked straight up to her, sword at the ready, and the other 4 backed off nervously, not knowing what to expect from him.

Dakota, however, smirked as if she'd been waiting – and hoping – for this. "Back off, Bobby. This guy is obviously very confident." She pulled a sword out of her hilt – a pitch black one. "Show me what you got." She lunged, expecting to nab him on her first stroke.

Percy parried quickly and got in a slash of his own, but Dakota was fast. She sidestepped and twisted the hilt of her blade upwards. Percy retracted sharply and lunged for her side. His blade didn't meet with anything because she had rolled aside and stabbed fiercely at the gaps in his defenses. As they fought, Percy saw her concentrating harder, putting in everything she had. Percy was going by instinct alone, but his swordfighting ability still seemed to be smoke-screened – he wasn't very sure of how to win the duel. He just kept defending himself and occasionally taking a rough shot at her. Finally, Dakota got through a loophole in his defense and her blade clanged against his right forearm. It wasn't over, though, because her blade bounced off like he was made of granite – just like Mrs Dodds' talons had failed to get a hold on him. Percy caught her before she could recover – he hooked the hilt of her blade and twisted sharply downwards. It was a move that was buried somewhere deep in his mind – and her black sword clattered to the floor. Percy pointed his sword at her throat.

Dakota stepped away slowly.

Percy raised his eyebrows. "Still disappointed?"

Dakota refused to answer. She turned to her compatriots, and Percy couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction. He looked at his arm in curiosity – why hadn't her attack had any effect on him?

Percy realized that they were all holding weapons and facing him now. He turned to Bobby. "What do these people think they're doing?"

Bobby cleared his throat and did his best to sound authoritative. "Percy isn't attacking. He just wanted to prove a point."

No one lowered their weapons. Instead, one of the guys leapt forward held his knife in front of Percy's throat and another held his arms behind his back. It all happened so suddenly that Percy had no time to react. He struggled against his restrictions, but the guy had a grip of steel. Desperation won over pride. He tried to kick the guy in front of him, but the guy neatly sidestepped, his weapon not moving from its position in front of Percy's throat. Someone forced some nasty-tasting liquid down his throat, knocking him out cold.

Percy awoke.

He was lying down on a hard bed, in a room brightly lit with yellow lamps. He sat up groggily, trying to remember what had happened. His name was Percy Jackson, he'd been on a school trip before he fought a psychopath warrior-girl and knocked out by the others.

Naturally, he couldn't remember anything before the school trip. Percy blinked a few times and the room came into focus.


	3. A Camp for Heroes

The room was empty at first – a bunker that reminded Percy of a bomb shelter. He was on a hard wooden bed with no mattress. "This is him?" said a voice he didn't recognize.

There was a crowd of maybe twenty teenagers in the room, all staring at him with their weapons out. Percy sighed in exasperation. When was this battle act going to end? At the front of the group was a girl with black hair. She was that annoying girl, Dakota, from earlier who'd tried to kill him. "What did you do with Jason?" she demanded.

Annoyed, Percy tried to stand up, only to find that he'd been tied to the bed with thick brown ropes that cut into his flesh. "Where have you brought me now?"

"We'll ask the questions," said the girl next to her. This girl was also in battle armor and she was carrying a bow, an arrow notched and pointing at him. Something about her stance stirred his memories.

"Who are you?" Percy asked, ignoring her statement.

She ignored him as well. "We're not untying you until you answer all our questions." She turned back to the group and called forth one of the guys who had a long wicked-looking hunting knife in his hand. "Kenneth, make him tell us."

What did _that _mean? The guy sauntered up and started rubbing the side of his blade against Percy's arm. Percy remembered what had happened earlier when Dakota tried to strike his arm, and hoped that effect had lasted. "I don't know anything," Percy said. "You can ask me all you want, but you won't get any answers because I have none."

"Kenneth, cut him," ordered the girl with the bow and arrows. Kenneth complied, and he moved the blade downwards with more force. As Percy expected, nothing happened. The blade couldn't penetrate his flesh. Instantly, a hush came over the group of teens.

"Lower your weapons," said Dakota. Everyone obeyed her, leading Percy to think that she must be the "leader". She approached him. "I think he's telling the truth. He really has no clue."

"Then why were all of us sent to collect him?" demanded the girl with the bow and arrow angrily. "What was that vision about, Reyna?"

Another girl spoke up, "He's our link to finding Jason, that's what I was told. We have to keep him alive; he's our only hope. Anyway, it doesn't look like we _can _kill him."

Kill him? What was wrong with this bunch?

Dakota turned to the others who were all awaiting her command. "Leave."

All of them backed out of the narrow room, with the exception of the bow-and-arrow girl and the one who voted to keep him alive.

"What do you think you're doing, tying me up like this?" Percy demanded. "I didn't do anything."

They ignored him. "Is he a half-blood, Reyna?" Bow-and-arrow girl asked. Reyna seemed to study him carefully. "Can't be a monster, and no human wouldn't survived the ambrosia we forced him to eat. But how is it that he hasn't been found, at this age?"

"He's never been at camp, so where did he get this weapon and where did he learn to fight?" complained Dakota. "I fought him, but his style is all wrong. I've never seen anything like it. That's the only way he bested me. He's got to be a son of Mars."

"This is out of our hands," said the girl with the bow and arrow authoritatively. "Take him to the Wolf House. Madame Lupa will decide what to do with him, or how to dispose of him."

"Hazel, I'm not lying about that vision," she said. "We need to find out more about him and get to Jason."

"You've been getting all soft and sentimental ever since Jason disappeared," said Dakota harshly. "We can't afford this, Reyna. Look at him, he can't even remember his own age, you expect him to lead us to Jason?"

"Yes."

Dakota pulled out her sword, and Reyna tapped on her finger. Percy saw that she was wearing an ornate ring with tiny symbols all around it and a pearl set in it. She was suddenly holding a heavy, ornately decorated spear with an evil point.

Hazel, the one with the bow and arrow, sighed. "Break it up," she said, stepping in between them. "You've been arguing non-stop, and I understand. Jason's disappearance has really thrown the First Legion into chaos, so you can't let it get to us. We need to stay focused and find him."

"By getting Madame Lupa to tear him to shreds?" Reyna asked. She was taller than Dakota, and she had honey blonde hair curled like Cinderella's. It reminded Percy of someone.

"By allowing Madame Lupa to pass judgement." Dakota said, forcing Reyna's weapon down. "Keep that."

Scowling, Reyna twisted her spear a few times in her fingers and it turned into a ring again. Dakota sheathed her sword. "Hate to admit this, but Hazel's right. Cut him free."

Hazel picked up the knife Kenneth had left on the table and slit the ropes binding him tightly to the bed. Percy stood up. "Who's Madame Lupa?"

"No questions," said Dakota.

"If you don't answer my questions, I'm not going."

"Three-on-one. Yeah, it'll be real hard to force you along."

"Have you forgotten what happened in our earlier fight?" Percy asked. "I don't recall you having the upper hand."

Her black eyes flashed. "I'm not taking any more from someone who hasn't even been claimed."

"So what are you gonna do? Fight me again?" Percy baited. He was feeling stronger and more confident this time after rest.

"No." Hazel spoke up. "We're not taking any risks with him." She turned to him with a hostile glare. "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Who are you?"

Hazel held up her bow and arrow. "Daughter of Apollo, standing in as praetor of the First Legion. Dakota has already introduced herself. Reyna, show him."

Reyna turned her ring into a spear again and showed him the flat of its shaft. There, engraved into the gold, was an owl.

"Athena," realized Percy.

"Correct, but we call her Minerva." Reyna stepped forward, more interested. "You know about us?"

"I can't recall," Percy said. "So where am I?"

"At a camp for heroes," said Hazel. "You won't be here for long, because we're taking you to the Wolf House. All of us have to prove our worth there before we're admitted to camp."

"And if you're judged as unworthy?"

Dakota smiled. "Madame Lupa will rip you to shreds, of course." The possibility of that happening to Percy seemed to excite her.

"Nice woman," Percy said. Hazel laughed. "Madame Lupa is a she-wolf. She won't show you any mercy, even if you're supposed to lead us to Jason and all that crap. Be prepared."

"Who's Jason?"

"He's been missing for a few days," said Reyna. "He's the praetor of the First Legion, and our friend."

"All your questions answered?" sneered Dakota. She pushed him forwards, but Percy caught his balance on the doorframe. "Take him to Madame Lupa now, Reyna. Hazel and I will meet you back at the arena." She took one last look at Percy. "See you later." Dakota and Hazel left.

"What is wrong with those two?" complained Percy.

"They're just worried about Jason," Reyna answered. "Not to mention that we're never very friendly to outsiders. Be thankful for whatever ability it is of yours that stopped Kenneth from cutting off your arm earlier."

Reyna turned and exited, motioning for Percy to follow.


	4. The Necklace

Reyna led him out of the room and they emerged in the middle of a forest. Reyna acted like it was no big deal to have a bunker in the middle of the forest, instead she casually slashed at the plants blocking their way and paved a path out of the forest. This led Percy to think that whatever operation these teenagers ran, they were all crazy.

"Are we still in San Francisco?" Percy asked tentatively.

"Yes."

Phew. At least he wasn't in China or somewhere too far away from home. Then, Percy realized he didn't know where home was. He had to follow these people or he'd become a homeless guy on the streets. It was a dark thought.

"The Wolf House is in Sonoma Valley, California," Reyna said. "We don't normally go there, but if we have to, Dakota usually takes us by shadow-travel. She's not going to take you, so it looks like we'll have to travel by air or by sea."

"By sea," said Percy at once.

Reyna spun around. "Why?" She wasn't as tall as she'd seemed back in the room in front of Dakota, but her presence was still intimidating. "Are you acrophobic?" It seemed as though she was going to laugh at him now.

"No, I just hate flying," Percy retorted. "Show me to the boat."

Reyna laughed and continued through the fauna. "By the way, we landed here temporarily. None of us are barbarians so we don't live in the jungle."

"Why did you have to land here temporarily?"

"We don't trust you enough to reveal our location."

Oh. Percy tried to change the topic, but found himself unable to. He just couldn't remember enough to carry a conversation easily. Instead, he sighed to himself in annoyance and followed Reyna through the woods. Soon, they emerged onto a sandy beach.

"The Bay Area," said Percy.

"How did you know?"

"I don't know." Of course he didn't. Reyna was walking along the beach, but Percy was staring out to sea. Something about the water was drawing him in, and Percy followed his gut instinct and walked towards the water.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Reyna called after him. She tapped her ring and ran after him with her weapon at the ready in case he tried to escape.

Percy's feet touched the water, but he was still dry. Mystified, he walked further into the water, still completely dry and warm. The water seemed to welcome him back like an old friend. Percy reached a hand down to touch the water, and it turned into a solid form in his hands in the shape of a trident. Reyna was still shouting for him frantically. Percy dropped the trident and it flowed back into the ocean, liquid. He turned reluctantly and made his way back to the shore. What was he doing wading into the ocean anyway? The amnesia must be driving him crazy.

The first thing Reyna observed was that Percy was still dry and clean. She had seen him influence the water into a solid shape. Even more, he seemed reenergized, as though that short trip into the water had rejuvenated him. Hopefully, it had jogged his memories as well. Reyna instantly put two and two together; Percy was obviously a son of Neptune. She didn't let on what she'd figured.

"Why are you still dry?" Reyna asked, her mouth open in an expression of shock.

Percy shrugged. He knew that this was normal for him, but not why.

"In any case, I'd appreciate it if you stopped making detours. I'm being very nice because the woman in my vision told me you'd help me find Jason, but if you keep up the amnesia and these silly antics, I'm going to stop making an exception for you." Reyna turned around and continued down the beach.

Percy followed, enjoying the feeling of cool sea breeze and a gentle sea spray in the air. He saw the waves lapping at the shore, coming in and then receding, and decided to try to influence its movement. He willed a bigger wave to come rushing upwards and maybe drench Reyna.

A monster wave roared out from the previously calm and peaceful ocean, dousing Reyna from head to toe and enveloping some of the trees off the coast. The droplets arced gracefully over Percy's head and avoided him altogether. Reyna's blonde hair was matted and darker.

"What was _that_?" She looked at the sea, then looked at Percy. "Why didn't you get soaked?"

Percy shrugged again. "Maybe some sea monster."

Reyna sighed and continued walking. It was only then that Percy noticed a tattoo on her right forearm – twelve straight black lines with an owl over it, and the letters SPQR.

"What does that tattoo symbolize?" Percy asked.

"_Senatus Populusque Romanus._" Reyna said. "Does it sound familiar?"

"No." Percy checked his right forearm – he definitely didn't have a tattoo. Reyna glanced him over, then her eye spotted something – around his neck, Percy wore a necklace with five clay beads strung on it.

"What's that necklace?" Reyna asked, stopping him sharply by tugging him back. Percy glanced down and took off the necklace. "I have no idea." However, he had a sinking feeling that the necklace symbolized something it shouldn't – something that wasn't looked upon kindly by these people. He looked at it – each of the beads had its own unique carving on it. One of them had a picture of lightning flashing around the Empire State Building, another one of them had a trident, another had an intricate maze. "Tell me what this means." Percy handed the leather strap with its 5 beads over to Reyna, who looked it over.

"The trident symbolizes Neptune, God of the Sea. The lightning flashing around the Empire State Building must have something to do with what happened last summer, when we defeated the Titan Krios." Reyna mused. "As to the others, I don't know what they mean. Who gave you this? These are all clearly symbols of Roman gods and stuff that's been happening, but no mortal would've realized."

"I'm really tired of saying this, but I don't know." Percy took the necklace back from Reyna. Even though he didn't remember how he got this necklace, he had a feeling it had significance. He put it back on and ignored Reyna's curious stares.

They arrived in front of a ship – a regular speedboat, with a small cabin and whitewashed deck. "Who does this belong to?" Percy asked.

"The entire camp," Reyna said. "You're going to the Wolf House, where Madame Lupa decides if you're fit to join us at camp."

"And if I don't want to join this camp?" Percy asked, just because he felt like being difficult – he knew there was no other option for him, what with his weird memory-block. There were some words in a foreign language printed across the side of the boat in cursive, and Percy tried to read it but the letters floated around all over the place. Reyna saw him staring. "Dyslexic?"

"Seems like."

Reyna climbed onto it and started powering it up. For the first time, she looked uncomfortable and a little nervous. "Do you know how to drive a speedboat?"

"Yes," Percy replied, not knowing where he got the confidence from. The moment he'd stepped onto the boat, he felt less uneasy. "What are the coordinates for Sonoma Valley?"

Reyna rattled off a bunch of numbers which somehow made sense to Percy. He powered up the engine, enjoying the slight rocking of the boat on the waves, and they were off.


	5. Into The Wolf House

**Author's note: After a few chapters, it doesn't seem that this story is being well-received compared to other fanfic on this archive. I'll post a few more chapters and consider whether I want to continue this.**

**Anyway, thanks a lot for those who have reviewed :)**

The boat glided smoothly along the waves, and Percy felt like the ship was responding to his every whim and command. He felt unbelievably at ease. Reyna watched his every move carefully.

"We'll be there in an hour, six minutes," said Percy, not knowing where this information was coming from. "If Madame Lupa kills me, I'm going to be really annoyed."

Reyna raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were confident that you can't be killed."

"I don't know, but I know Dakota can't harm me." He smirked. "I must have severely injured her ego."

"Don't let your guard down so fast when it comes to Dakota," Reyna warned. "She's ruthless. She's also got necrokinetic, umbrakinetic and geokinetic abilities."

Percy had no idea what she meant, but didn't question further. He kept his eyes in front of the boat and headed to the destination of the coordinates Reyna named. Her insistent gaze made him feel rather uncomfortable. She was studying him as though he were a scientific experiment, as if trying to decipher what his arrival meant.

"What exactly was your vision about?" Percy asked.

"Someone told me to find the guy in the San Francisco Museum of Roman Myths, and to bring others in case things got violent," Reyna replied. "I summoned five members of the First Legion to collect you. Bobby, of course, had been with you for weeks, but you claim you don't remember."

"I don't," defended Percy, feeling vaguely irritated. Up till then, they still didn't believe him. "This amnesia is annoying me more than it's annoying all of you, so stop harking on that."

Reyna shrugged and left him to steer the speedboat. Although she barely knew him, she seemed to trust him – or maybe she was just hoping he'd lead her to Jason, her friend, whoever that was. Percy briefly considered steering the boat in a different direction – to New York, or something. For some reason, he felt that was a place he'd spent time in before. The clay bead with the picture of the Empire State Building on it only increased his interest in going there. However, once he was there, he'd have to deal with Reyna.

Sighing, Percy resumed his original course. He had to play by their rules, whatever they were, and meet this she-wolf Lupa. Percy was pretty confident that she wouldn't be able to kill him that easily.

They docked on a deserted piece of land just off the coast at the closest possible spot to Sonoma Valley, California. There was no beach here, only a rocky border and a forest ahead. Reyna led the way through a path in the forest – it had obviously been walked many times before, although there was no man-made paving or signboards to guide the way. The ground was well-trodden and many plants were shoved out of the way to make a narrow walkway in the trees. They emerged in a clearing with a giant red brick and wood ruin in the center. Two spires rose from the center of the ruin – one of them much thicker and darker than the other. They were made of thickly woven tree roots that seemed to be alive as they slowly twisted upwards. As Percy and Reyna entered the valley, a chilly breeze blew towards them, unnaturally cold especially in comparison to the comfortable temperature at the coast just a few hundred metres away.

It seemed to be slowly getting colder, even as they stood there. Percy's eyes raked the surroundings – the valley was planted with redwood trees, and the ruin had obviously been a mansion at one time. Even now, Percy could see that it had once been a majestic red-gray stone house, with a red roof, the remains of which still glowed in the dim light. The sky was strangely cloudy for that time of year, though some rays of light penetrated the gloom.

Reyna cleared her throat. "That's the Wolf House. Madame Lupa will be waiting; follow me."

She walked straight towards the derelict mansion, expecting Percy to follow. He trailed behind her. On the exterior he was still calm, but he was worrying about this she-wolf who, from the sound of it, rather enjoyed ripping demigods apart. Everyone seemed to think he was one – Madame Lupa might be the one to tell him who exactly he was.

"Is it always this cold?" Percy asked. Reyna glanced away uncomfortably.

"No," she said. "But the winter solstice is approaching soon, and that could be the reason." She didn't sound convinced, but she continued on to the house.

They stepped through a crumbling threshold near the back and into an abandoned room. The walls were half-collapsed and there wasn't much furniture left in there. Wolves lounged in corners, others paced around. Most of them had unnaturally glossy black fur. Percy wasn't sure if it was normal for these people to walk amongst wolves that looked ready to kill them, but he followed Reyna with a sense of nervousness. She led him through a few redwood arches and past the courtyard with the two spires. Now that he was closer he could see that they were on the opposite ends of the pool, buried into the ground. The pool still contained lots of clear water, but it seemed to be freezing up on the surface. Both tendrils seemed to open a little more towards the base, as if something or someone was inside or below. Although the tendrils were slowly spiraling upwards, they were still underground and Percy couldn't see what was below.

"What are those?"

"Madame Lupa won't tell us." Reyna said. Percy could tell that she knew but wasn't letting on any information. Fine, she could hold back information. When Percy got back his memory, he could hold back information as well.

On the opposite side of the courtyard of the U-shaped house, a wolf with warm reddish-brown wolf was seated underneath another arch. She turned her head as Reyna and Percy approached, regarding them with cold silvery eyes like liquid moonlight. Her gaze rested on Percy, evaluating him.

Reyna bowed. "Madame Lupa, we acted according to my vision, and we have captured the one who will lead us to Jason Grace."

The wolf didn't _speak _in the literal sense of the word, but she stood up on her four legs and walked up to them. She was the biggest wolf Percy had ever seen, with powerfully built legs. Her movements conveyed her words clearer than any words could – the subtle movements in her whiskers, ears, flashing of her gaze – they made up her language.

_He is a half-blood. _The She-wolf said. _Does he bear information of your praetor?_

Reyna shook her head. "He can't remember anything at all. He only knows his name – Percy."

Lupa howled softly, and she spoke. _If he is of no use, my brethren will destroy him now._

"No!" Reyna stammered too quickly. "I mean – he may regain his memory. He may still help us find Jason, he's our only lead."

"Wait up," Percy said. "You're going to kill me just because I don't know this Jason guy? How fair is that?"

Madame Lupa stared at him coldly, not a trace of compassion in her silvery eyes. _The weak or useless are killed, the strongest survive, _she said. _It has always been that way._

She looked back to Reyna. _If he is to help you, he will have to join you at camp. _

"I understand," Reyna said. "And I'm willing to take the risk."

Whoa, what risk? Percy couldn't believe they were discussing him like some kind of barter trade.

"He hasn't been claimed, although he's probably around sixteen," Reyna continued. "He has a weapon – a bronze sword, not imperial gold or a _gladius_, but it seems capable of slaying monsters – one of our protector fauns witnessed it firsthand. He seems to have had training before as well, and he has some kind of symbolic necklace."

The She-wolf looked at the necklace around his neck and understanding reflected in her eyes. The corner of her lip curled in a kind of creepy wolfy-smirk. Then, she lifted her head into the air and howled.

Reyna knew what was going to happen, and she quickly left. Percy was about to follow but he was abruptly confronted with a dozen wolves, all stalking towards him. Percy fumbled for his sword and uncapped it, causing Lupa to laugh harshly. He had no idea why, but the wolves weren't afraid of the blade like Mrs Dodds the teacher had been. They just pounced at him, their claws raking him, trying to tear his flesh apart.

Percy sensed that he'd been in many tough situations before, but this didn't classify. The wolves' claws couldn't get to him, and he saw an opening in their attack. He slashed forwards forcefully with the sword and leapt through the opening, turning around sharply and keeping the wolves at bay with quick strokes of the sword. Percy caught one sharply in its hide, and golden blood trickled out of an open wound. The wolf lay to one side, defeated, but even as Percy was keeping the others at bay, its wound healed completely and it was back up.

The wolves were powerful and aggressive, but Percy was holding his own at defending himself. It didn't seem as though the fight was going to end anytime soon, as any damage done to the wolves was quickly undone and the wolves' claws didn't affect Percy. It was as if he was made of granite – everything just slid off harmlessly. His senses seemed to come to life as he fought, his eye taking in every detail, anticipating every move. He knew exactly where to move and where to stab. The only problem was that his sword couldn't do any lasting damage to the wolves.

They backed him out into the courtyard, near the two pulsing spires. Percy leapt onto the side of the pool and along the platform. Looking at the clear, calm water, Percy willed the entire body of water in the pool to rise. It obeyed him. Percy didn't know where he was getting at, or where he got the instinct from – it was deeply rooted. Then he channeled the water straight at the wolves, turning it into a thousand solid water lances. As the water moved, something in Percy's mind stirred. He was a child of the ocean – son of Poseidon. He knew. The revelation should've been crippling, but it wasn't – he'd known this before.

The wolves were all out of the fight. In anger, Percy walked straight back into the room where Lupa was still. "What was that about?" he demanded.

Lupa's eye glimmered. _A test._

"So have I passed your test?" Percy saw Reyna in a corner of the room, standing and observing coolly.

_You were fast, and I believe we now know who your parent is, without having to be claimed. _Lupa's lip curled and her whiskers quivered. _But no, you have not._

**Author's note: Please review!**


	6. Madame Lupa's Test

**AN: Once again, thanks for your support of this story and for the CC :) I'll try to take your advice as much as I can. I just realized that Percy might seem a bit OOC, but that's because I don't know how to make him very in character :\ He seems like a simple enough person, but when you write about him it's another matter altogether. I haven't got much plot in yet, but I promise that Percy will get to camp at the end of this chapter and he will soon get his own quest.**

"What now?" Percy asked in exasperation. Lupa's gaze was as hard as ever.

_You have not proved your worth_, Lupa said.

"Madame Lupa, he has." Reyna spoke up. She had to be really fond of this Jason character, Percy thought, to stand up against her beloved Madame Lupa for him. "Hasn't he proved that his fighting ability? His style isn't the same as ours, but it's effective. Plus, if he's really a son of Neptune, he'll be a valuable addition to our troops."

"What troops?" asked Percy.

"The First Legion," Reyna said firmly.

_That is my decision, and I will make it, _Lupa said. She surveyed Percy again, who suddenly felt exhausted from all that he'd been through. _There is another test, _she said to Reyna more than to him. _Have you forgotten, Reyna Ivankov? _

Ivankov? That sounded like a Russian surname, Percy noted mentally. Reyna cringed when Lupa said her surname, but she maintained her tough exterior. "I have not forgotten, Madame Lupa," she said quietly.

Lupa smiled, and Percy felt every hair on his body stand up. _We will proceed, _she said. _But he is too old, and he has had training. The normal rules no longer apply._

"What do you mean?" Reyna asked. Percy had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Lupa seemed to treat the whole matter like some kind of clever joke. She was toying with them, because she knew where Percy was from, he guessed. _To see if he is worthy of the First Legion. _

"He is," Reyna interjected. "He fought Dakota Seymore and won. She's our best swordswoman. Besides, he can't be injured. You saw it for yourself – he must have taken a dip in the Styx. As to how he survived, I can't be sure."

Reyna seemed to know more about him than he did himself. Percy wondered briefly if it was a daughter-of-Athena thing, or if she had known him before. The next moment, two other demigods were standing in the abandoned room with them.

One of them had dark wavy hair and an arrogant stance – Dakota Seymore, daughter of Pluto. The other was shorter with caramel braided hair, and she had a gladius in her grip. She had to be Hazel, daughter of Apollo. They glanced around to get their bearings, then knelt at Lupa's feet.

_Rise, _Lupa said. _You are a part of the boy's test. _

"Excuse me?" Dakota asked. Percy heard a hint of doubt in her voice. "Whose test?" She looked up and saw Percy standing with Reyna. Her expression hardened. "Why is he so important? The consul needs to prepare for Legion Assessment."

_Ivankov wants him to join your legion, _Lupa said. _I sense you disagree?_

Hazel stood up straight. "I will not permit some unclaimed, unproven demigod to join my legion while I am still filling the position of praetor."

Lupa let out a loud, harsh bark that sounded like a laugh. _Then you will fight him._

"Three on one?" said Dakota in a shocked tone. "That is beneath us. I refuse."

_Then will you take him yourself, daughter of Pluto? _Lupa asked. _Ivankov says you can't beat him._

Dakota's brow furrowed in annoyance, but she bowed. "I will fight him." She turned to Percy and unsheathed her sword. "Well?" she asked. "Ballpoint pen ready?"

Percy uncapped his sword again, and stood in a combative position facing Dakota. He was prepared, and he had a plan. Dakota moved first. She spun forwards in full battle mode, swinging her sword with both hands. Had Percy not been fast enough, he would have been sliced in half. Why did these people take a duel so seriously? Percy struck hard from behind, but Dakota ducked under and attempted a stab to his side. Percy cleared his head and thought in combat mode. He had been in many fights before, even if he couldn't remember. He slashed, rolled, stabbed, dodged and quickly had Dakota's blade behind her neck, his own angled at her throat. His expression was triumphant.

Angrily, Dakota shoved both blades away. "It's useless, anyway," she snarled. "For some reason, this guy's skin is impenetrable."

"Haven't you learnt anything yet, Dakota?" snapped Reyna. "He has taken on the curse of Achilles. He is invincible except for on one spot of his skin."

Dakota gasped, but Hazel didn't react. "Should we try to find it?" Hazel asked, ever ready to attack.

"Certainly not," Reyna said at once. "There's no need for that."

Lupa watched the whole exchange, looking from one of them to another. Silence fell, and there was an uneasy air.

"Very well." Dakota stepped back and positioned herself around Hazel and Reyna. "We will fight him. Fight to disarm, since we don't know where his Achilles spot is."

Smirking slightly, Percy returned Dakota's nightmare-black sword to her. Reyna tapped her ring, which grew to the golden spear she'd used back in the room. Hazel, previously armed with a bow-and-arrow, produced a curved Roman sword, a gladius. They all crouched in defensive positions, expecting Percy to strike first.

Percy had a plan. Instead of meeting all three of them directly in combat, he summoned the water again. It caught them unexpected, and Percy moved them in spiraling motions, producing a miniature hurricane. He sensed that he'd done this before, though he didn't know when or where. Dakota and Hazel were caught completely off guard, but Reyna seemed to have anticipated something like it. She was the first one back on her feet and she scrambled to escape the fast-moving water and air. Percy moved right through it and knocked Hazel to the ground on first stroke, trapping her gladius with his foot and sending it spinning across the room. It impaled itself in the ground a few inches away from where Lupa rested. Dakota struck, but she was blinded and weakened by the force of the water. Percy caught her blade on the hilt of his sword and shoved it downwards, sending it clattering to the floor. The water abruptly crashed down in a torrent, unable to sustain itself in the air. Reyna was waiting for him at the opposite side of the room, her spear ready. Percy wondered if she'd let him off easy, just to save her friend Jason.

The answer was no. Reyna twisted and struck and spun, but she was no match for Percy. It was as if he was on fire – his instincts took over completely, and before ten seconds had passed her sword was in his grip. She stood back, defeated, but it was clouded by her triumph. She looked to Lupa at once.

Lupa could clearly tell what Reyna's intentions were, but she said nothing about it. _He will join whichever legion you see fit, _she said. _The magical influence on this house grows stronger, and my brethren and I can no longer stay here. We will leave until help has come. _

"Who's going to help?" Reyna asked.

_I have spoken to Jason Grace in his dreams, _Lupa said. _I cannot tell you where he is, because then its purpose would be destroyed. That is the way of the Fates. You must take Percy back to camp and find out what is his purpose. _

Lupa turned her back on them and she was gone. The other wolves, including the ones Percy had left unconscious on the floor, had similarly vanished. They were alone in the Wolf House with two mysterious beings trapped under spires, and the only sound left was that of the roots expanding outwards.

Dakota looked to Percy with newfound respect. "You're a son of Neptune."

"Who's that? Don't you mean Poseidon?" Percy asked.

"They're the same," Reyna said. "Why do you use the Greek names?"

"They seem right," Percy said truthfully. "Why do you use the Roman ones?"

"Because the gods only exist in their Roman forms," Reyna said. "Camp is the only place in the world that is safe for demigods such as you and I."

Percy raised his eyebrows. That didn't seem right. "If what you're saying is true, and that all demigods get claimed at a very young age, why am I still alive?"

"It's the truth," Dakota said. "Demigods are claimed as young children of about six, and we all begin our journey here at the Wolf House where if we prove our worth, we go to camp. If we fail, we are eaten by the wolves."

"My best guess, you're very, very lucky," Reyna said. "The possibilities of you surviving by yourself for so many years, especially as a son of Neptune, are extremely slim. But it's the only possibility." She didn't sound convinced, but she turned to Dakota and Hazel without further elaboration. "I'm sure we've all agreed on letting Percy join the First Legion."

Hazel and Dakota both nodded reluctantly. "His parentage leaves us with not much choice," Hazel said. "He will join our Legion training tomorrow, after he's been given a tour of our camp. Put him in our building."

Reyna nodded. "I will oversee him for the first day. First Legion is a great honour, and not many campers may be friendly to you. You're lucky that you're vital to the quest to find our praetor, if not you would not be receiving this treatment. Dakota, are you taking us back?"

She nodded, then everything went black. Percy felt as though his face was peeling off at the speed they were moving, and he could hear strange, tortured noises in the distance. It was creepy, but totally cool and slightly familiar.

Seconds later, they were back in daylight. They were standing in the middle of the forest, and Dakota was panting heavily in exhaustion. Percy felt slightly disoriented, but he didn't collapse. Hazel and Reyna looked slightly giddy as well, but they quickly righted themselves.

"Most people collapse their first time," Dakota commented.

"I don't think this is my first time," Percy countered.

"There are no other children of Pluto at camp," Hazel said with confidence and authority. "And you could not have ridden a hellhound; they are impossible to tame."

Percy didn't argue. He had a feeling Hazel was hard to argue with.

Dakota and Hazel moved off together, quickly skipping through the forest in one direction. Reyna looked around briefly. "I'll take you to the living quarters first," she decided, then she led him off in the opposite direction.

**AN: Thanks for reading. Please review?**


	7. Building I

**Author's Note: Thanks for your encouraging reviews and responses! I'll try to live up to your opinions. In this chapter Percy goes to his living quarters.**

They arrived in a glade.

The place was built up like a military camp, with physical training grounds all around the borders. In the center of the glade were 5 rectangular structures that looked like barracks, arranged in a semicircle. Everything about the place reminded Percy of a war training ground. The place was empty, though.

"Where's everybody?" Percy asked.

"They are at Legion Assessment," Reyna answered. "At camp we run a meritocratic system. Legion Assessment is one of the factors considered in which legion a camper is to be assigned to. Killing is banned, but maiming is encouraged. The aim is to knock your opponent out."

"Nice people," Percy muttered. "So how many legions are there?"

"Five, the First Legion being the most senior, experienced or capable. Each legion has its own praetor, who acts as the leader. Our praetor is Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, but he disappeared a few days ago. Nobody knows where he is. Then I had a vision in my dreams that told me you would lead us to him. I found you, and hopefully you'll help us find him."

"Who's Jupiter? Is that Ares?"

"I believe his Greek name is Zeus, Lord of the Sky and King of the Gods." Reyna turned sharply and brisk-walked towards one of the buildings. What she'd just said sparked an onslaught of memories in Percy's mind. He'd definitely known who Zeus was, and he had dealt with him before. "I know him," Percy said abruptly. "I think I've met him before." He tried hard to recall how he looked, what he said – anything that would help him to recover his lost memories, but nothing worked. His mind had been thoroughly cleansed.

"Impossible," Reyna said decisively. "If you'd survived yourself as a demigod, there's no reason for a god to meet you. It would have only lessened your chances of survival, to know who you were." She marched forwards and Percy stood at the front of the five structures.

They weren't anything special, at least from the outside. They all looked like unremarkable wartime bunkers, one being much bigger than the rest. The only thing exceptional about them was the frontage – it was as if the front of a chapel had been grafted to the bunker. Each building displayed a white marble frontage with columns and a triangular roof frame with a different number inscribed on it. The largest, which was furthest from the training grounds, had a giant Roman numeral – I – encircled in gold on top.

"Since you're training with the First Legion officially, you get to stay in our building," Reyna said as if it were a great privilege. She entered the building, Percy close behind.

The outside did not prepare Percy for the interior. They walked through a corridor and stepped into a massive domed lobby with intricately carved columns and walls, and a massive watercolor masterpiece occupying the entire ceiling. There was a table in the center of the room holding a display vase of flowers. Thirteen more corridors spiraled off the main room at regular intervals, leading Percy to imagine that the building's network was like a giant robot spider. On each corridor's arch-shaped door there was a golden plaque with a symbol inscribed on it.

The one closest to the doorway had a lightning bolt as its symbol, the next had a peacock with each feather on its tail individually defined, the third had a trident, and the fourth had a fancy antique helm. Reyna let him look around the room, but the only thing Percy was actually noting were the symbols. Each one seemed strangely familiar in a different way. There was a sprig of wheat, a boar's head, an owl like the one on Reyna's spear, a sun, a crescent moon, a hammer, a dove, a caduceus and a hearth.

"Overindulgent, maybe," Reyna said. "But the First Legion gets nothing but the best. Besides, we use these luxurious living conditions as a compensation for our tough lives most of the time. At camp, it's all about hard and fast training, and lots of discipline."

"So … these symbols represent the Olympians, and the kids of whichever god live in the rooms off those corridors," Percy figured.

"Correct." Reyna pointed to the door with the owl symbol. "As I'm sure you know, the owl is the symbol of Minerva. My siblings and I live down that corridor. Each of the living quarters is designed by the god or goddess themselves."

Something was wrong. "But aren't there more than thirteen gods?" Percy asked. "Where do children of them stay?"

Reyna looked uncomfortable. "Usually, children of minor gods don't make the First Legion," she confessed. "There was never a need for them to have living quarters in our building."

"So you discriminate by birth?" Percy said, outraged. "In what way is that fair? You call yourselves fair, you say you're about unity and discipline."

Reyna glared at him. "You're new, you'd better learn more before you start questioning our ancient traditions." Percy had hit a raw nerve, because she refused to look at him. "Your room would be down that corridor," she said, pointing to the door with the trident on it. "I'll leave you to check it out yourself."

Percy opened the door, and instantly a comfortably cool ocean breeze washed over him. The corridor was well-lit, as one of the walls was made out of sliding glass. The glass opened out into a sheltered triangular pavilion with a sunroof. The pavilion, paved in multicolored stones, had many water fountains, the water forming beautiful shapes like rearing horses. There was a shed in a corner, but there were no horses inside and it looked to be full of metal objects. The pavilion ended, Percy presumed, where the next corridor began, but he couldn't see in as only one wall of each corridor was glass. His corridor was paved in abalone. He walked down the corridor and opened the first door. The room was long and low, with rocky gray walls and the same abalone floor as the corridor outside. The furniture was nothing fancy or luxurious, but some of them had a mother-of-pearl sheen that could only come from under the sea. There was a statue of Neptune in the room, in an alcove in the wall. There was a bed, and a desk with a chair. It was cool, with some breeze from the corridor.

It felt like home.

Percy sat down on the bed, his emotions a jumble. This room reminded him of his own home, wherever it was. It also reminded him strongly of his father.

He looked at the statue in the corner, and pictured Neptune – no, Poseidon, it seemed more right somehow – in normal day clothes. He had a strong and determined face like the statue of him from the museum trip that seemed like months ago, but his eyes were surrounded by lines that showed he smiled a lot too.

He had no possessions, but the room seemed to be stocked with some basic items that he'd need. There was a toilet as well. He walked back out to the building's main lobby where Reyna was waiting for him. She was leaning against the wall, between the owl door and the sun door.

"You've already got a weapon, so I'm not going to take you to our Legion's weapon storage," she said, casting a glance at the vase of flowers in the middle of the room. "What material is that, anyway? It isn't imperial gold, but it can kill monsters."

"Celestial bronze," answered Percy without thinking. He uncapped the sword and studied it. The blade was double-edged, the leather hilt flat and studded with gold. "Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe." He had no idea where he was dredging the facts up from.

"I see." Reyna said thoughtfully, then decided to take advantage of his brief memory revival. "And does your sword have a name?"

"Its name is _Anaklusmos,_" Percy said, then shook his head. "How did I know that?"

"_Anaklusmos _… that doesn't sound Latin," Reyna observed. "Sounds like Greek to me."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"I mean seriously," Reyna snapped. She was jumpy. "But the gods don't use Greek. I don't know where you got this sword from. Anyway, I'll take you to some of our other training grounds now, but we won't disturb Legion Assessment which is taking place at the arena."

**AN: I don't think that being disciplined and battle-ready means that they have to live like savages in primitive tents :) The Romans are very proud people. I appreciate reviews. **

**~Eliza (FairytaleRomance)**


	8. Legion Assessment

**Author's note: Again, thanks for the support :) I'll be on holiday in Austria for most of next week and the week after, so I might not be able to get any chapters up though. When I get back I'll try to post more before school starts in January.**

"We have an archery ground which is between our lake and our Main building," Reyna narrated. "The Main Building is where we have our Consul Assembly Room and also the lounge for any godly visitors. Madame Lupa rarely oversees us at camp – we are a very disciplined group who can manage ourselves. When she does, she stays there. We have our attic storeroom there, as well as our music studio and map studios. My siblings and I spend a lot of time in the map studios, because they are the best for arranging war strategy."

Percy took it all in silence, walking along the bubbling creek on a wooden bridge.

"Camp's a pleasant place most of the time, because we do what we want to," Reyna said. "We train, of course, but mostly we get to choose what is best for ourselves. For example, children of a particular god will spend their time doing what they're skilled at, to prepare themselves better for combat. It's what we're about – to capitalize on our strengths, build up our capabilities, so that we can expand and conquer."

"Expand and conquer what?" asked Percy. It seemed the obvious question.

"Anything, as long as we are given a destiny," Reyna answered. "But only the Oracle can answer to that. Her name is Gwendolyn, and she lives in the Main Building when she joins camp each summer."

"Since I'm now a part of your camp," Percy said, "When am I going to get one of those tattoos?" He pointed at Reyna's forearm.

Reyna laughed. "You have to earn it. Only consul members have these tattoos, and they are elected. Now we're going to camp store to get you a T-shirt." She pointed at the purple T-shirt that she was wearing. It was normal round-neck tee with _Castrum Medius Sanguis _inscribed across in black text.

They'd arrived at a tall brownstone building with arched windows and columns like a Roman cathedral. Reyna let him enter. The main hallway was empty except for a woman behind the marble countertop. Her name plaque read "Frida", and she looked extremely bored as she perused a magazine titled _Olympus Weekly_. When Reyna entered, she turned around and yawned. "What are you doing out of Legion Assessment? Who's this?"

"A new pup," Reyna said, steering Percy to the reception. "Yeah, he's old. Special case."

"Name?" asked Frida.

"Perseus Jackson," Percy said. He assumed he'd have to give his full name.

"Parentage?" asked Frida. She flipped through her leather-bound book, a pen in hand. Reyna reached forward and stopped her flipping. "Not the Fifth Legion, the First."

"Are you serious?" Frida asked Reyna.

"Yes." Reyna said firmly. "And his parentage is Neptune."

Frida floated to the back of the office – floated? Percy watched in amazement as she hovered in mid-air, searching for the right book on her shelf. "Wind nymph," said Reyna in a sidelong whisper, effectively answering his questions. She pulled out a red leather-bound book and started writing his name down. Percy waited, then Frida sized him up. "Size M?" She handed him a purple camp T-shirt in a plastic wrapping.

Reyna took Percy's hand, and he awkwardly tried to shrug out of her grip but she dragged him away from Frida. "Thanks, Frida."

"Don't go upstairs!" she called, then resumed her reading. Reyna went back out the door again and Percy saw on the other side of the lake there were a series of nasty-looking obstacle courses with heavy spiked metal balls and pits full of lava.

Reyna saw him looking at the courses. "Those are for practice only," she said dismissively. "I don't think they do much for us, really. Real training happens in the matches, or games. They're organized by the consul."

"So you don't have a … activities director or anything?" Percy asked.

"Like I said, we manage ourselves," Reyna said. "Madame Lupa is our mentor, but she is a goddess. She can only guide, not instruct."

"What?" Percy was taken aback. "That wolf is a _goddess_?"

"Of course," Reyna said. "She's Lupa, the one who raised Remus and Romulus. Don't you know?"

Percy felt like an idiot, but he didn't know how he was expected to know all these facts beforehand.

"Where are you taking me now?" he asked resignedly.

"I'll take you to the arena," Reyna said. "To see our Legion Assessment in action. They should have reached the quarter-finals by now."

The arena was just over the hill from the obstacle courses. All of the camp's facilities seemed to lie on a horizontal line, with the woods extending outwards from all directions. Occasionally, there would be a sound like a growl from the woods, leading Percy to think that something was lurking in there.

From the angle at which he approached, he could only see the back of the arena – it looked like a usual gray stone outdoor amphitheater. Reyna walked into the entrance. Inside, there was a battle happening in the pit. Everyone was in full battle armor, and the crowd of around fifty was watching quietly and attentively.

The two sparring in the pit were both guys, one of them bulked up – Kenneth, the knife guy – and the other one less so. Despite being less physically imposing, the leaner guy seemed to have the upper hand. They were both fighting with a gladius.

They were brutal, using every method they could to win. Although they were both in battle armor, Percy heard some sickening sounds of flesh tearing. Kenneth's arm was sliced apart by the other guy's sword, and it was bleeding heavily as he stood up. Despite his wound, he did not lessen any of his aggression as they sparred. The other guy wasn't cutting him any slack either – rather, he took advantage of Kenneth's incapacitated arm by stabbing at it, causing Kenneth to buckle in pain while he knocked him, hard, to the ground. Kenneth was lying on the ground, but he still made a move to get up, using his shield to swipe a hard punch at the other guy. With a nasty thwack, the metal connected with the guy's face. The guy turned in pain, and Kenneth thrust at the guy's arm. The guy ducked and managed to grab Kenneth in a headlock. Using brute force, he grabbed Kenneth's gladius from his injured arm. Then he pushed him down onto the stone floor. Kenneth lay there, unmoving, defeated.

Percy was aghast, but nobody reacted as if this were anything out of the normal. The guy who'd won ran a hand through his brown hair and sat down on the bench at the right of the stadium. A few of Kenneth's friends carted him away. "Why didn't they do anything?" Percy said to Reyna in a side-whisper. "Is this normal?"

"You mean Kenneth getting injured by Alex? Yeah, I'd say that's pretty normal," Reyna said with no compassion.

So the bench at the right was the "winner's bench", Percy assumed, where the winners of the matches sat. Next, two people on the bench got up, leaving the guy alone there. Percy saw that one of them was Dakota and the other an Asian with black hair.

"Who are those?" Percy asked.

"Dakota, and my sister Leah," Reyna said.

Percy watched, with interest in spite of himself. Dakota used her black Stygian iron blade – he didn't know how he knew that – whilst Leah fought with the usual golden gladius. They were both pretty good, and Leah approached every move with a kind of purpose, like she'd already mapped out the entire fight in her head and she was merely carrying out her plan. Dakota relied more on instinct, but it was clear that she thought fast and moved fast. Leah was having a hard time pre-empting her moves.

They were not as violent as the guys before them, but they were still fierce. Dakota had tied her hair for the fight, and she looked very impressive as she fought. Leah was smart, but she wasn't a match for Dakota's speed and skill. Dakota slammed her shield down on Leah's gladius, and Leah tried to return the move, but Dakota parried quickly and used the extra momentum to disarm Leah. Leah carefully thought around Dakota's defences and managed to snatch her gladius back up, but the move cost her dearly. Dakota stabbed at Leah's shoulder blade. Clutching her shoulder in pain, Leah gritted her teeth and ruthlessly attacked. The falter in her careful strategic planning was what caused her to lose the fight as Dakota grabbed the sword and flung it aside, slamming Leah's own shield down on her chest. Unable to fight due to hurt and exhaustion, Leah slowly got up and left the arena.

In spite of his dislike for Dakota's attitude and her arrogance, he was relieved that she'd won. She seemed a lot more aggressive and ready to face up to that Alex guy who he'd just seen nearly cutting off a friend's arm.

A break was called to let Dakota cool down after her fight. Reyna walked down to the first level of seats, where Hazel was seated right behind the winner's bench. "All going smoothly?"

Hazel shook her head. "Not as smoothly as we'd like. Kira lost to Ryan."

Reyna patted Hazel on the back. "Ryan did not perform in various fields, whereas Kira has completed a quest this year. No worries there."

Hazel nodded, her teeth set.

"Brought the pup, I see," Dakota said, joining them. She was still a little out of breath from her fight.

"Took him for a tour and gave him his room." Reyna said. "Still hoping for the memory to ease up so we can quickly get our information."

"What information? You're not still hoping to find Jason, are you?" Alex, the brown-haired guy from earlier approached. "Who's this?" He said, gesturing to Percy.

"New camper," Reyna introduced. "Percy Jackson."

Alex sized him up. "He's old for a new camper."

"He's been out there," Reyna said surely. "He's been training, he's got a weapon, but he's an amnesiac. He'll be joining our legion."

"You're not serious?" Alex asked. "A new camper joining the First Legion? Has he even been claimed?"

"He's Neptune's son," Dakota contributed. She eyed Alex with dislike, even more dislike than she'd eyed Percy with. "You better show some respect." She seemed to have forgotten that she'd been ruder before she knew Percy's parentage.

"An amnesiac, sure we're going to buy into that," Alex said. "I hate how you 'Major God' spawn think you're it. The other campers aren't going to be as nice as me, Seymore, and you know it. Particularly those in the Second Legion."

"Shut it," Dakota warned. "He's our only lead to retrieve our praetor."

Alex rolled his eyes. A few more people had gathered around by then, to see what was going on. "You think everyone's going to lead you to Jason."

"Reyna had a vision," Dakota said defensively. "Probably sent by Juno herself."

"Who's he?" asked some people who'd just assembled around. They were all examining Percy with curiosity, some glaring at him. "Is he the reason Reyna wasn't present for Legion Assessment?"

Hazel cleared her throat. "I'm only going to say this once. He's our new camper, a son of Neptune, who will be joining the First Legion immediately as of tomorrow. No questions. This is a case that you need not know about, and just know that you don't want to fight him. That's all."

The campers weren't silenced. Instead, more people started talking and complaining.

"The consul has not even discussed this matter," one guy said. Glancing at his arm, Percy saw that he had the tattoo of a demigod consul. "Who gave you the rights to make solo decisions, Hazel? I thought that all major decisions – and this certainly qualifies – were to be evaluated by the full consul, not just those of the First Legion."

Many people echoed what he said, as if he was persuading them. He had an instant effect upon most people in the crowd, who were taken by the charisma that dripped from his words.

"That's Jeremy, Praetor of the Second Legion, Son of Venus," Reyna said to Percy quietly.

Everyone fell silent, and kept their eyes on Hazel, waiting for an answer.

**AN: If you like, R&R, cause it motivates me to write more. Thanks! **

**- Eliza (FairytaleRomance)**


	9. The Final Match

**Author's note: It's me again :) This will be the last chapter before I'm off for vacation. Thanks for your suggestions, I'm thinking about how I can use them. **

**- Eliza (FairytaleRomance)**

"We have no choice." Hazel spoke clearly, exerting authority in the way she always did. "Ever since the disappearance of Jason Grace, praetor and leader of the consul, I have been working hard to make amends and to find him as soon as possible to restore our former peace. A vision has been sent by Juno, his patron, to Reyna, his … friend. It would seem that the decision to fully integrate Percy, our lead to Jason, into our practices without any hesitation on the consul's part. The choice to put him in the First Legion was the decision of Madame Lupa, and myself since I am the leader during Jason's absence. We also wished to keep him near Reyna, who might receive further messages from Juno and will also know the best way to derive Jason's location from Percy. I do not think that a meeting of the consul was necessary, especially since today is Legion Assessment."

The crowd quietened down, especially after Hazel mentioned that they had Madame Lupa's approval. The guy, Jeremy, didn't back down.

"Madame Lupa would never directly interfere with our decisions at camp," Jeremy said insistently. All around, people started calling out their agreement. "It's pretty obvious that the decision was made by Reyna Ivankov and all her friends from the First Legion are backing her. Without consulting everyone, you're making biased choices."

Percy'd thought Hazel was hard to out-argue, but it seemed like this guy was worse. "What's his issue?" Percy muttered to Reyna.

"Many of the campers from other legions aren't satisfied with the way camp is being run," Reyna answered quietly. "They think the First Legion gets unequal rights, and they want to bring the system down. They'd do anything to defeat a member of the First Legion, be it in fighting or in argument. It's been getting worse now that Jason's gone. In fighting, they don't stand a chance against us, but in terms of argument, Jeremy Evans takes the cake."

Percy didn't know much about the camp, but Jeremy didn't look like the kind of guy to stage a riot and take over the organization.

"Don't underestimate him," Reyna warned. "Charisma is a powerful thing – he really should be a politician. Hazel's got lots of authority, but she lacks Jason's presence. Jeremy is gaining support. Part of the reason we need Jason back so badly is because without him, a riot or revolt might ensue. It would disrupt our camp totally and ruin everything we've been working to perfect about our system."

Hazel was at a loss of what to say, so Dakota took over for her. She stood up straight and addressed everybody. "If you think that Percy does not have the right to train with the First Legion, any of you are welcome to challenge him."

Jeremy turned confidently to his supporters. "Agnes? Will you take on this opportunity?"

Agnes nodded. She was a tall, lean African girl with dark skin and a long plait down her back. She looked really aggressive, but Percy was determined to show this Jeremy guy down. In Percy's view, Jeremy was an annoyance who was trying to tear down everything the camp had progressed.

Agnes raised a lance. "Where's your armor?" She sneered at him. "Put it on if you want to survive this fight." She was over-confident bordering on arrogant.

"I'll pass," Percy said calmly, knowing that she couldn't harm him even with that wickedly sharp lance. They both faced each other, ready for combat. Everyone else backed off, watching with the interest of an angry mob about to see their criminal executed.

Agnes charged with her lance. The moment Percy saw her move, he knew that she wasn't even a match for Dakota. Percy didn't want to give her any face – he striked as hard and fast as he could, knocking her down in a matter of seconds with his sword point at her chest. By Percy's standards, the fight was over.

By Agnes' standards, it wasn't. She grabbed the blade of Anaklusmos with her bare hands and shoved it upwards hard. The hilt knocked Percy's arm hard, doing no damage but sending him reeling. Agnes seized the opportunity to grab her weapon again. When Percy recovered, Agnes clocked him hard across the head with the side of her spear.

Percy's head was ringing, but he was even more determined to win the fight then. This time, he wouldn't be so nice. It was clear that he'd have to knock this Agnes girl out cold before she would surrender. He thwacked her hard across the head with Anaklusmos, faked a left then grabbed her weapon from the right. Agnes lunged for her weapon, missed and punched Percy in the gut. There was no pain. Percy swung both weapons around in a full circle. He heard a dull thump, which meant that he'd successfully hit Agnes. She was on the floor, unconscious.

Despite his triumph, Percy felt uncomfortable. Agnes wasn't an enemy; she hadn't done anything wrong. Sure, she'd tried to kill him, but that was nothing. She didn't deserve to be knocked out and humiliated in such a fashion. Percy was liking this camp less and less.

The crowd watched in silence. Nobody came to help Agnes. Nobody moved a muscle. They were all motionless and in shock – they'd probably expected him to have no training whatsoever.

"Well, there you have it," Hazel said, her voice shaking a little. "Are you satisfied that he's deserving?" She stalked off from the arena, and Dakota followed her. "Stop following me, you've got to finish your fight." Hazel said to her, and shoved her back.

"You're the camp leader, you can't not be present!" Dakota tried to reason, but Hazel just ignored her. Resigned, Dakota walked back to the arena. Alex the son of Mercury was already standing in the pit brandishing his gladius. By then, Jeremy had disappeared back into the crowd as they were all seated and watching, ready for the final fight to begin.

Dakota rolled her eyes like the fight was a complete waste of time, and she pulled out her sword. "Ready?" Alex asked. "You consuls are all the same."

Dakota said nothing. Skipping past the theatrics, she went straight in with a whirling stab. Percy watched carefully as they fought aggressively. The only sound in the arena was metal clanging on metal. Their fighting style was extremely aggressive and not as … polished as Percy thought it should be. They were all about attack, without much defence.

Dakota kicked Alex hard in the gut, causing him to reel in pain. She seized his gladius but Alex pulled back with a return elbow in her stomach. Dakota spun her blade around and used the hilt to knock him in the forehead. It would all have been rather funny had it not been so rough and painful. Alex grabbed Dakota's blade from behind his head, but Dakota slid sideways and avoided it.

Alex had orchestrated that move. He managed to hit Dakota, hard, across the leg with the hilt of his blade. He scraped her leg, creating a bleeding gash. But the fight wasn't over yet. Dakota reached upwards, standing slowly clearly in agony, and punched hard. Alex was caught unawares and he almost dropped his weapon. The moment of weakness was enough for Dakota to grab it from him. She thrust and Alex ducked, but too late. The sword grazed his shoulder and left an open wound. Dakota took maximum advantage of this point of weakness by striking the same spot again with her sword.

Clutching his shoulder, Alex tried to slice open Dakota's head. She grabbed the blade, but Alex used his good hand to stab downwards. This time, Percy heard a bone crack.

He couldn't stand it, but no one was doing anything. Was this _normal _for them? Reyna's troubled look and the faces of the crowd told him that it wasn't. However, Hazel wasn't there to mediate and decide when the fight ended.

"Dakota, give it up," Reyna shouted. "This is overboard." The crowd was buzzing now, and some people started to shout.

"End the fight now." Percy heard Jeremy Evans' voice above the calls of the others, and Alex and Dakota faltered. In spite of his prejudices, Percy was glad that he'd spoken up. _Hurry_, he mentally urged. _Someone might die here._

"The maiming in this battle has crossed our boundaries," he said. "Healers, please take them away and end this now."

A group of athletic-looking kids – Apollo kids, or maybe Hermes kids, Percy thought – rushed forwards to carry the two of them off. They were both badly injured. Neither seemed conscious.

"What's up with that Jeremy character?" Percy asked Reyna. The day's activities had been cancelled, seeing that Hazel was missing in action and two campers were badly injured. Percy and Reyna were in the camp's sickbay, sitting beside Dakota's bed. She was still unconscious. Alex lay a few beds away, surrounded by his own friends. He had come around faster than Dakota. "Why does everyone listen to what he says? I know about charisma and good looks and all, but there's a limit to that."

"He's a charmspeaker." Reyna adjusted Dakota's sheets. Her face was knotted with worry. "Certain children of Venus have the ability to convince people to do what they want, beyond the normal levels of persuasiveness – it's coercion, or almost blackmail, in a way. They can talk almost anyone into doing anything. If you ask me, it's a more dangerous ability than having lightning control, or being able to summon dead skeletons or anything."

"Summoning dead skeletons? I think I've got a friend who does that."

Reyna glared at him. "Not funny, Percy. Dakota's got that ability, believe it or not."

"I'm serious!" Percy tried to think, but no name would come to mind. "I must know a child of Hades, because I've shadow-traveled before. It makes sense."

Reyna shrugged. "It's Pluto, and don't you find it kind of hard to believe there are so many powerful demigods roaming around freely?"

"I obviously lived somewhere before I came here," Percy pointed out. "And if I've had training, there's got to be somewhere else where demigods are trained. Are you that narrow-minded?"

Reyna was silent. "And where do you think you've been?"

Percy thought for a while, then decided his best answer was "New York City." He wasn't sure, and he definitely didn't remember ever being there, but the words seemed familiar. He was certain that the bead with the Empire State Building meant that he'd been there before.

"New York City is overrun with monsters," Reyna said. "Don't you know? Half-bloods should _never _go there unless absolutely necessary. If by some slim chance you've survived all these years alone, before you got your curse of Achilles – as to how you got into the Underworld and _survived _I'm clueless – there's no way you lived there. According to our teachings, the monsters keep close to Olympus because that's where the center of power is. None of us have ever been to Olympus – we wouldn't survive a trip through the city. If the gods have something to say to us, they visit camp." She clearly didn't want to discuss it, as she changed the subject quickly. "Dakota's wounds are easing up. She'll probably recover fully."

"Speaking of Dakota, why were she and Alex fighting like that?" Percy demanded. "Isn't everyone at camp supposed to be friends, or at least respectful of each other?" Instead of fighting to the death just over some ridiculous assessment – jeez.

"She and Alex have a long history," Reyna said. "Let's not go into the details, but they hate each other. Since they're our best fighters, they meet each other very often in practice fights, and a mediator is always needed to keep them from loping off each other's limbs. With Hazel gone, they were pretty out of control."

"Hazel's gotta be really stressed," Percy observed. "With having to take over camp at such a short notice, and with all this power play from the other campers."

"Pretty much." They fell silent, and Percy watched Dakota sleep. Her black hair was straggly and her face covered in a sheen of cold sweat – probably from the pain. She looked much more vulnerable when she was sleeping.

Percy let out a yawn, and Reyna picked up on it. "You'd better get rest while you can. Today's activities are off, but we usually don't get much free time. I'll meet you back at our building at dinnertime to show you where we eat."

Percy was about to argue, but he realized that he was tired. Dog tired. He felt like collapsing on the spot, but he made his way out of the sickbay and down the stairs of the Main Building. Frida was there, still reading magazines and drinking coffee. Percy felt like he could use some of that coffee. The doors swung open as he walked to them, and Percy made his way back to his building. Campers were walking about talking in hushed voices. Everyone stared at him, but Percy was too tired to care. Upon reaching his room, Percy gladly collapsed into his bed and fell asleep.

Then his dreams came.


	10. Dreams & Visions

**Author's Note: I'm back from my rather short vacation, and it was great. However, I've had writer's block for a while now D: I finally came up with something, so please don't get your hopes up – this probably won't live up to prior expectations.**

In his first dream, Percy was on a mountain.

He was standing at the peak as mist and fog swirled thickly around, making the air hazy. The buffeting winds slowly gathering speed and the beginnings of a snowstorm did not help to clear his vision. However, he could see a giant form standing before him, along with a human-size guy who was being chained – imprisoned, or held captive. The guy looked to be in his late thirties, and his face was white as a sheet. Percy couldn't tell if he looked good or not, because his features were contorted – as though he'd been driven completely insane. He also seemed to be semi-conscious.

Where Percy was standing, the ground was rising, enveloping his ankles and preventing him from standing properly. He couldn't move.

A huge, earthen form rose out of the soil, forming a vaguely humanoid giant-sized woman. Her hair was covered in moss, and she was liquid – the soil constantly dripping everywhere as though her face were melting, though more earth kept rising to keep her basic form. As the monstrous creature rose, the giant knelt.

_Rise, Enceladus, _the creature spoke. Her voice – it was definitely a her, somehow – wasn't coming directly from the formation's mouth, but sounded as though it were echoing around the entire mountain range. _I come to warn you._

_Rest assured that everything is going according to plan, _said Enceladus_. The boy will bring the girl to retrieve her father. Porphyrion will rise undisturbed, and Hera will perish. _

_Making sure that foolish son of Jupiter, Jason Grace, would bring her was the simplest of our tasks, _Gaea said. _He is too morally upright and driven by his affections for his daughter. _

Enceladus looked gleeful.

_But something has happened, _Gaea said. _We may be thwarted. Hera has tried to unite the demigods. She has offered Jason Grace and Perseus Jackson as an exchange._

_Fear not, my lady, _Enceladus reassured. _Jason Grace will be dead as soon as he sees me. _

_Perseus Jackson must be dealt with, _Gaea mused. Then she turned – a giant, mud form that was absolutely terrifying – and looked directly at Percy.

The dream changed, and Percy was looking at a guy sitting in the corner of a room. He looked to be slightly younger than Percy, but it was so dim he couldn't make out his face. All Percy could see was his close-cropped hair reflecting light. The guy was studying a picture in his hands, of a girl in a black army jacket with lots of badges. The girl in the picture was around twelve, and she had black spiky hair, bright blue eyes and freckles. Her face was painfully familiar.

"Jason?" An even more familiar girl's voice called, and the blond guy – Jason – glanced at the door. There was a silhouette of a girl in the doorway.

Percy woke up.

A hint of a memory, faint and painfully near, filled his mind and lingered just out of reach. Percy struggled to think through his impatience, and the invisible restraints that had been put in his mind.

His name was Jason, the guy everyone at this camp kept talking about. Son of Jupiter – Zeus. The spiky-haired girl's face was familiar. The sight of her face made him think of lightning flashing down from the heavens, hitting a spear, and redirecting itself to Percy, burning his front. If they'd known each other prerviously, they must've quarreled a lot.

Percy glanced outside his room through the window – it was still bright, which meant it wasn't time for dinner yet. He took off his bead necklace and studied the beads again.

The first one on the cord was black, with a green trident, the symbol of Poseidon. Maybe he had that bead to symbolize his parentage? The second bead had a picture of a golden sheepskin – a fleece. That one didn't make sense, because Percy didn't have anything to do with sheep. He figured that maybe it symbolized something that had happened to him before. The next bead was a maze, which Percy could not understand at all. His fourth bead was the Empire State Building, with the lightning and stormclouds around it. Now that he studied it closer, he could see that the stormclouds weren't really clouds – they were carved names. Eagerly, Percy tried to read some of the names. Most of them were unfamiliar, but he faltered over a few. Katie Gardner – Michael Yew – Silena Beauregard – Charles Beckendorf. He was certain that he'd known these people. Why were their names on the bead? The fifth bead was the façade of a palace, with soaring white marble columns, golden rooftop gardens and lush greenery hanging everywhere. There were also statues standing around.

Percy felt his hair rise, then a woman materialized before him. She was tall, beautiful and dressed in a white toga-style dress. She looked human, but Percy could tell she wasn't mortal. For one, she had a glowing aura about her – that was a dead giveaway.

Percy didn't know what to do, so he just stared. "Perseus Jackson," the woman said. "You do not remember anything of me, but I am Hera, Queen of the Gods."

"Um … hi, Queen Hera." Percy looked up uncomfortably. Hera's eyes were boring into his, trying to see into his mind. "What brings you here?"

"I am not really here," Hera or not-really-Hera said. "This is only a small part of my spirit, since most of my essence is under capture. That is not what I have come to tell you. You can't remember anything, but I have to show you something you must."

Percy couldn't comprehend. Then the next second he was surrounded by a vision.

A girl, with blonde curls, lay on a stretcher on a balcony. Beyond them, a familiar city skyline soared. The girl looked pale and sweaty, but her face, with its big gray eyes, hit him with strong recognition. Tending to her was a healer, treating a nasty-looking gash where the skin was a nasty shade of green.

The world spun, and he was underwater. Pain hit him like a thousand knives from all directions, and Percy's mind was in a state of panic. Maybe Hera was really trying to kill him. The boiling acid stung his skin, then Percy felt a tug from his back, like a cord.

"Hold on Seaweed Brain." Percy heard a familiar girl's voice coming from directly above him, and glanced up. "You're not getting away from me that easily."

The tug on his back strengthened threefold, and he could see whose voice it was – the blonde girl who he'd just seen on the balcony. Seeing her face, Percy felt something stirring inside him, a curious sense of significance. In fact, being there rekindled some of his memories – he could distinctly remember being in this river before, and the experience was definitely too bizarre to be familiar, but he'd definitely done it before. And her presence carried a definite weight – it was vitally important, he could tell that much.

The girl was standing barefoot on the edge of the acid river, wearing an orange T-shirt like the one he'd been wearing, and her blonde hair was tucked up into a cap. She smiled at him, and he felt a warm rush. "You are such an idiot sometimes. Come on, take my hand."

Percy reached up for her hand, just because it felt right. Before his fingers could reach hers, though, the vision faded and he was into another.

In this vision, he was a spectator – he saw a young boy, maybe of twelve or thirteen, standing beside the creek. The boy had jet-black hair and startlingly green eyes – it was clearly himself, much younger. The blonde girl was there too, much younger – about his age, then. She looked to be thinking extremely hard. Looking at her expression, Percy could almost see the wheels in her head spinning.

"Percy, step into the water." Percy made a move to step into the creek, but stopped when he realized that she was speaking to his younger self. There was a gasp, and only then did Percy notice all the spectators standing around – kids to teenagers, dressed in battle armour. There was also a half-man half-horse, a centaur, with a familiar wise, kind face standing nearby. Everyone was staring at younger Percy in shock. Percy followed their gaze to see himself standing in the water.

"Look, I don't know why," Younger Percy seemed to be apologizing, but everyone was ignoring him. Percy sounded ridiculous, even to himself. There was a spinning greenish hologram over younger Percy's head – a trident, the symbol of Poseidon, his father. Clearly, this had been his "claiming" that the other campers were forever discussing. Now he knew that it _had _happened – just not in the way they were used to. Where had he been, anyway? With a group of orange-shirted demigods?

The last vision faded, and Percy was standing in front of Hera again. "Who is she?" he demanded. Hera's image was already fading. "Where was that place?"

"You have to remember her," Hera said. "She is your lifeline, and you must remember what keeps you human. If you lose sight of your humanity, you lose sight of yourself and what is right."

Percy couldn't comprehend any of what Hera was saying. "Which means what? Why is she my lifeline?"

"I cannot tell you," Hera said infuriatingly. "Just do not forget what I have told you."

"How am I expected to remember if – " Percy started, but couldn't finish because Hera had disappeared. Percy stared at the spot where she'd been a few seconds earlier, then sighed in exasperation and sat back down on the bed, looking at the statue of Poseidon and trying in vain to remember her name. He'd already decided he wasn't going to play by the Romans' rules. He was going to leave at first opportunity and look for his old life, wherever it was.

**AN: That's it :\ Not great, a little abrupt maybe, but I hope you'll still leave a review. The point of this chapter is for Percy to have **_**some **_**clue, no matter how ambiguous, about his old life/Camp Half-Blood/Annabeth/Thalia/stuff in general, because I don't want him to be completely useless. It's also physically impossible for him to forget his Annabeth, because of the whole lifeline-thing, which is why I put that in, even though I really wanted to write about him not recognizing her upon meeting again. Anyway, please tell me what you think/suggestions? :) **

**- Eliza (FairytaleRomance)**


	11. Afternoon at Camp

**Author's note: I'm sorry for you guys who wanted Percy to leave the camp ASAP and reunite with Annabeth, but there are too many things I have to cover before that. And yeah, I did make a mistake in Chapter 10: I mistyped Thalia's age. Thanks to all who noticed and feedbacked :)**

Having made that decision, Percy stood up, grabbing his pen/sword as an afterthought. From what he'd seen of the camp so far, there was no telling when he'd have to defend himself from murderous co-campers. A fresh, cooling ocean breeze greeted him in the abalone corridor which glowed with a mother-of-pearl sheen, once more teasing Percy's memory – the concept of abalone being used to pave floors and panel walls just wasn't new to him. Pushing on the sliding glass door, Percy exited the corridor and to his outdoor pavilion, heading straight for the shed with the metal objects – it'd been bugging him for the longest time, what could possibly be in there? The shed was rusty, like it hadn't been moved in a long time, and when Percy tried to move the hinges they creaked deafeningly. The shed was still bound by an iron chain, but it was so rusty that when Percy slashed at it with his sword it broke instantly.

It turned out that the shed contained parts of a chariot. Well, there wasn't much space to drive it in this area. Percy slammed the door closed and headed to the water fountains, where the thin layers of water spraying through the air were forming beautiful rainbow-coloured projections of horses and hippocampi. In the water, he could see his reflection for the first time since he'd awakened in that museum – he had black hair, relatively pale skin, but what stood out most were his sea-green eyes. _Must've been an inherited trait from my father_, thought Percy. He reached out towards the film of water and his finger reached through. Instantly, his reflection dissipated and the water followed the movement of his finger, forming arcs and waves. Experimentally, Percy waved his hand. A torrent of water soared in the air in the form of a horse, and galloped to the next white marble fountain. Not even a drop of water landed on the multicolored stone tiles. It was an amazing sight.

Still, Percy quickly grew tired of this pointless fooling about and the restlessness came back. He headed down the corridor back into the lobby, where the vase of flowers had been replaced with a gleaming statue of a god with a bushy black beard and misshapen form – Hephaestus, god of the forges. Or Vulcan, whichever. The circular design on that part of the floor had also been replaced by triangular mosaics of palaces and parties.

Before Percy had time to wonder about how it could've happened, the section of the floor containing the statue slid soundlessly down into the ground. Surprised, Percy peered downwards. He couldn't see anything but blackness before the section of floor with the table and vase of flowers rose smoothly back up to lobby level, carrying two passengers – Reyna and Leah. "Oh, hey Percy," Reyna said.

"Hey."

"We've just been to the forges," Reyna said casually. Leah was holding a different sword this time – a gold one with a double edge. "Kenneth, James and the others are working down there."

"Okay." Percy understood why Reyna had glanced at the flowers when she'd mentioned his weapon earlier. "So, uh, the Hephaestus kids have their workshops down there?"

"Vulcan's kids' forges, yeah." Leah pushed the sword into a beautifully ornate sheath. "And much more." She walked off towards her room, pushing open the door. Percy glanced over and saw a Goth-looking lamp holder nailed to the wall right behind her door before Reyna brought his attention back. "The Vulcan – Hephaestus – children of our legion have been excavating the ground under the building, constructing new facilities, finding new bunkers. It turns out that a long time ago, the ground on which this camp is was used as a hideout for demigods at a time of peril. There are still countless troves of never-thought-of creations to be found, not to mention the remains of war heroes."

"That's cool, I guess." Percy wasn't sure about the "remains of war heroes" part. "So – the rest of you guys, where do you have your workshops, or studios, or wherever you do your stuff?"

"Mostly Main Building," Reyna said. "But I'm sure the others have their own secret stations. I know there's a rumour that the Apollo kids have a portal to The Fields of Music."

"I've never heard of the Fields of Music."

"It's not a part of the myths, but apparently our legion's Apollo children have access to a musical paradise where they create new music, revisit the old, and as long as there is music in this world, the Fields remain open."

Wow. Percy didn't recall anything vaguely like that. "What about you children of Athena – Minerva?"

"We never give away our secrets." Reyna said mysteriously, and Percy mentally rolled his eyes. "Though we have our own mapping studios and stuff in the Main Building, you can see those."

"Sure." If Percy was going to leave this camp, he might as well see more of it first. Reyna walked out the door of the building. The training grounds which had been empty when Percy first saw the buildings were now occupied by campers training hard. Judging from the way they spun, kicked, somersaulted, balanced and threw, they could all have been Olympic athletes. As Reyna and Percy left Building I, everyone in the complex turned to look at them. Ignoring them, Reyna walked around to the central area with the gazebo. Some campers were playing on instruments that vaguely resembled harps while others sparred on the ground right outside. They really did take every opportunity to train. _What was their motivation_, wondered Percy. If he attended this military-school camp, and they'd been given a day off, he would have been chilling out in his room or hanging around with friends, not working extra hard. A few campers were seated in the gazebo, watching the fights, listening to the music.

Numerous campers were entering and leaving the other buildings, up to Building V. Even for Building V, the youngest kids Percy could see were aged around twelve to thirteen. He turned to Reyna. "Didn't you say you guys get claimed at – what? Three, four?"

"Around that age, yes," Reyna said calmly, moving through the crowd.

"Then why don't I see any kindergarten-age campers here?"

"The younger campers live on the other side of our camp," Reyna explained patiently, with a slightly patronizing tone. "They don't get involved in Legion training until the age of twelve, so there isn't any reason for them to be allocated to a legion. At twelve, everyone is put through an assessment. Most have to start from Fifth Legion and work their way up, but occasionally some campers are accelerated."

"So were you accelerated, at twelve?"

"No."

"Was anyone?"

"Nobody that you've met," Reyna said. "Jason Grace, however, was accelerated to Third Legion when he first met the required age. It was quite a feat."

"What about Dakota?" Percy asked, not knowing why he bothered.

"No, she joined the camp aged fourteen," Reyna answered. "Before discovering camp, she'd been in the Underworld for almost all her life, training with the dead. When she joined camp, she was put into Third Legion."

"How old are you?" Percy asked.

"I'm fifteen, going on sixteen."

"And how old am I?"

"I can't be sure, obviously," Reyna said sarcastically. "But, judging from external appearances, I'd say seventeen? Same age as Dakota."

Percy was quiet for a while, then he remembered that he'd wanted to tell Reyna about his dream. "Listen, I had a dream … about Jason."

Reyna's ears pricked up at once. "Yeah? What was it about?"

"Is he a fifteen, sixteen year old guy with short blonde hair?"

"Yeah."

"In my dream he was just looking at this picture of a girl with black spiky hair. She looked kinda familiar, so I'm guessing you haven't met her before. Do you know who she is?"

"No." Reyna looked puzzled and surprised. "How would Jason know her?"

"You're asking me?"

Reyna was silent for a while, deep in thought. "So did you see where he was?"

Percy tried hard to remember. "The room was very dimly lit, but he was definitely in an alcove of some sort surrounded by pillars. There was a statue somewhere, and the doors were at the far end."

"That's too vague. There are a thousand places that could fit that description."

"Sorry."

They walked in silence to the Main Building, Percy observing all the campers around them. The lake had a few canoes on it, and campers were canoeing – training competitively, of course. The nasty obstacle courses on the other side of the lake were clearly not as popular as those near the living quarters, there were only two or three campers agilely dodging spikeballs and jumping over beds of knives. While the campers back at the living quarters were incredibly athletic, these campers had even more – from their movement, it was obvious that they had mastered more than just speed and strength. They were able to sense, to pre-empt, to move fluidly as if the air was liquid.

Reyna showed Percy the various high-tech studios and laboratories that occupied the upper floors of the Main Building, then the Sun was setting and it was time for dinner. The dining pavilion was further on beyond the amphitheater, and it was in a stone cave, buried into the side of a mountain. The area was lit by flaming torches, and there was a carpet on the floor.

Reyna moved towards a table near the entrance, and Percy made a move to sit next to her, but Reyna stopped him by holding up a hand. "Our seating arrangements are based on parent, not Legion. You'll be seated at the table over there with Dakota, since she's almost fully recovered from her injuries."

"She's a child of Hades."

Reyna shrugged. "They didn't want to waste valuable space, so kids of Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto all sit there." She pointed to a table very far in the cave.

One-on-one with Dakota. Brilliant.

Groaning internally, Percy walked towards his allocated table and sat down. The table was big enough for five, but he assumed there wouldn't be anyone else joining them at their table.

He was right. As the last of the campers filed into the dining hall/cave, Dakota strode over to Percy's table and sat down, hanging her sword on the wall behind them. She sat down briskly and glanced at him. "Enjoying camp so far?"

"You've got to be kidding," Percy answered. "Where's dinner? And why is there an empty table over there?" Percy was referring to an unoccupied table big enough to seat twenty, beside Reyna's table.

"Here, we take turns to make dinner," Dakota informed. "Today it's Ceres' kids turn, so dinner will be great."

This system was new to Percy. Probably the other campers would all have indigestion when it came to his turn to cook. He voiced this out loud, and Dakota agreed. "Yeah, I'm a terrible chef. Jason was pretty okay, but ever since I started cooking alone the campers have been throwing up."

Before Percy could respond to this pronouncement, a buffet table wheeled out of the kitchens which came from a concealed door in the wall of the cave. One tall guy with a crew cut arrived at Dakota's and Percy's table first, pushing the cart. He put two dishes on their table and moved on.

Dakota dug in. Percy looked at the food – it was pretty normal-looking stuff, barbecued lean meat and potatoes, so he started eating. Dakota was right – the Demeter kids were great cooks.

Drinks were served next, by a guy who could've been the first guy's twin. "What do you want?" he asked Percy whilst handing Dakota a glass of water.

"Uh … do you have Coke?" Percy asked. He registered his cravings for the drink, not quite remembering what it was.

"Of course not," the guy replied. "Are you kidding? There's too much sugar in the stuff. No health benefits at all."

"Okay." Percy looked at the guy's cart of drinks and pointed at the jug of gold liquid. "I'll have this."

"That's nectar shake." The guy poured out a glass of the stuff and gave it to Percy, who sipped at it. It tasted like homemade chocolate chip cookies, which was a shock, because Percy had been expecting something that tasted like honey. The stuff was excellent – warm, melting, and with a hint of nostalgia that Percy couldn't place. Before he started looking like a moony-eyed daydreamer, Percy quickly started eating again. The two of them ate in silence.

When Percy was done, he got up immediately, deciding to head back for an early night's rest. He was inexplicably tired, despite not having done anything in the afternoon. "Where do you think you're going?" Dakota looked up from her food. "You're not allowed to leave yet."

"Why not?"

"We still have to make the sacrifice," Dakota explained impatiently. "Sit down!"

Reluctantly, Percy sat down. "Fine, tell me what the sacrifice is." He could feel his eyelids closing.

Dakota sighed in annoyance. She had a really, really short temper. "We've got to make a sacrifice to the gods every night, just a short ceremony. We usually burn food for them."

A conch horn blared.

"That's the cue." All the campers got up and started filing outside towards the amphitheater. In the afternoon, there had been nothing in the center but a pit, but now there was a fire lit in the center of it. A Ceres kid stood beside the fire with a food cart, a feast fit for royalty set on it. Percy jostled amongst the crowd, getting a few glares from people he bumped into, and sat down in the front row next to Dakota and a guy he didn't know.

A Ceres kid threw a shimmering coin into the fire, and it lit up purple. Everyone stood up at attention, as the Ceres kid raised an arm. He had the tattoo of a demigod consul, and he held in his hand a shield with the symbols of the twelve gods embossed on it.

"For the gods!" he yelled.

The entire crowd echoed him in one deafening cheer, and the food was thrown into the fire by some other Ceres kids standing to a side.

After the brief ceremony, several campers went to sit by the lake, while most headed back to the living quarters, Percy amongst them. He trudged up the steps of Building I behind Dakota, and went back to his own quarters for a night's rest. He resolved to leave the next morning after breakfast.

**AN: Thanks for reading. I'm transferring this back to the HoO archive soon. Please feedback if you want: **

**Percy to leave camp ASAP**

**Percy to kick butt at Legion Training the next day**

**Percy to get a quest**

**A God to visit the camp**

**School has started, so don't expect too much from me though I'll try to update whenever I've got the time.**


	12. Hazel's Letter

**Author's note: Thanks for all your reviews! It seems that everyone wants either a god visiting the camp, Percy beating everyone flat at Legion training, or both, so I'll probably do both. I was pretty much out of ideas anyway.**

**On a side note, it seems there are many Roman-haters around. D: Are the characters I created that despicable? Well, I tried to give them some depth, but I had to work with what Rick Riordan gave us: the fact that they aren't going to make Percy welcome. I guess it's pretty hard to make them likeable to all us Percy fans.**

The blankets were woven from pearly silk with some kind of kelp in between the layers. Percy slept soundly, finally woken by the noise from the other campers shouting at him from outside the door of his corridor.

He got up and grabbed another purple shirt and running shorts from the cupboard, which was apparently stocked for his use, washed up then changed. Making a mental note to steal some cash and essentials from the camp store later, Percy stowed Riptide in his pocket and made his way out the door. Reyna was leaning against the wall wearing the same purple T-shirt and shorts waiting for him, visibly irritated with her job of taking care of him.

"Where were you?" She snapped at him as he approached.

"I didn't know what time we were supposed to get up," was Percy's defence.

"You're always sleeping," she accused.

"I'm not sleeping now." Percy started to walk towards the door. "Where are your friends, by the way?"

"If you're talking about Dakota, she went on ahead with Hazel," Reyna said. "You can't expect everyone to wait for you."

_That wasn't fair_, thought Percy. Nothing at this camp was, anyway, and everyone seemed to be very grouchy, quarrelsome and irritable. Dakota and Hazel were the more extreme versions of this, but Reyna proved to have quite a temper and high level of edginess. Percy recalled the fact that children of minor gods weren't given private quarters in Building I, and therefore weren't selected for the First Legion.

Reyna stalked ahead of him, in a hurry to get to breakfast. Percy trailed behind, glancing all around to look for an exit. He tried to remember how he'd gotten from the boat from the Wolf House to the main camp area, then realized that he hadn't ever traveled directly from the boat to camp. The first time, he'd been held in a temporary shelter in the woods and he moved to the boat from there. The second time, Dakota had shadow-traveled them to a different part of the woods, near the middle of camp. Maybe it was done on purpose. With these people, he never knew.

When they arrived back at the cave, the previously unoccupied seat at the head of the Apollo table was now taken by Hazel. Dakota was sitting at their table, already halfway through her meal. Percy walked through the tables and over to where she was seated. "Hey."

Dakota nodded at him.

"Who cooked today?"

"The children of Mars." Dakota winced. "They're not the best cooks. In fact, they're worse than me."

From the unappetizing food on his plate, Percy could tell that. He didn't care, though; he was too hungry for that. He ate almost indecently, but Dakota didn't seem to mind. In fact, she was worse.

While gobbling, Percy heard the sound of clopping hooves moving towards the table next to his, and looked up to see who or what it was. It was Bobby the satyr, who nodded at Percy in acknowledgement then turned to Hazel. "This is yours." He handed Hazel a heavy cream envelope, sealed with the stamp of Olympus. Hazel turned the envelope over, and on the front her name, _Hazel Dalton, _was printed in flowing black script.

The entire dining room fell silent, and all eyes were on the camp leader. She opened the envelope carefully, and a single sheet of cream paper slid out. She scanned the letter briefly, then put it back into the envelope. "We will have a goddess visiting us at camp today."

Immediately, everyone began muttering and chattering, some in suspicion, some in excitement. Almost everybody looked at Percy. Hazel continued with her instruction. "Children of Mars will begin washing up now. All activities will be terminated until the goddess arrives, which will be around eleven. Legion training will resume in the afternoon. In the meantime, all demigod consuls will proceed to the Main Building for preparation. Second and Third Legions will make sure the necessary accommodations in the lounge are ready, Fourth and Fifth will prepare to welcome the guest. First Legion may stay out of it, as the goddess has specially requested that none of the First Legion, other than the consul, may witness her arrival."

"What? You can't be serious!" seemed to be the general response especially from the First Legion, but Hazel did not humor them. She walked towards the exit of the dining hall, and Dakota moved to follow her. Percy sat down and continued eating, however a Mars kid came over and started arguing with him.

"Percy, you have to come." Hazel said with great reluctance, turning back and facing him. Dakota and Reyna stood at her flanks.

"I'm First Legion, aren't I?" Percy argued. "I think you made it pretty clear that I'm not allowed to see this goddess." The Mars kid took the opportunity to quickly snatch away his food, and he stood up, putting Riptide back into his pocket.

"The goddess has specially requested that Perseus Jackson be her audience," Hazel said flatly. Her tone made it clear that she had no fathom why. "Now come." Dakota, Reyna and Hazel all moved off in one straight line like some kind of mob leaders. Why were these people so temperamental?

Percy followed, actually feeling like his questions could finally be answered. If anyone could tell him who he was, it would be a goddess. The trio entered the Main Building, and took the flight of stairs to the left, the one which Percy had previously been banned from going up. The flight to the right led up to the sickbay and other studios. He was about to see the side only accessible to the gods and consul members.

They all stepped onto the golden stairs and it spiraled upwards, like an automatic escalator. The walls were covered in Roman mosaic tiles, with pictures of the gods fighting, warring and having council meetings. Sunlight filtered in from the sunroof above. When the staircase arrived at the second floor, everyone got off and the staircase stayed unmoving. Percy guessed it was a tactic to keep unwanted intruders at bay.

Upstairs, there was a circular room, very much in the style of Building I's lobby except more spectacular. Percy's jaw fell open when he saw the area, it was unbelievably opulent. A diamond-encrusted ice chandelier dangled from the domed ceiling in the center of the room, the bottom morphing into a slim abstract ice figurine that was embedded into the floor. The floor was made out of ring upon ring of multicolored precious stones. Percy noted thin rings of celestial bronze, Stygian ice, aquamarine, opal, garnets, lapis lazuli, quartz, all kinds of gems. The ceiling was at least four storeys up, and the walls were made out of pure clear glass so Percy felt as though he were in a very luxurious drinking glass. At the sides of the room, three doors separated from the main room, with marble archways framed with gold and pearl.

Dakota, Hazel and Reyna showed no patience for Percy's marveling. They walked straight into the room on the left, and Percy was forced to follow them in quickly. The room they'd entered was extremely unremarkable compared to the splendor and grandeur of the circular room; it looked like a regular old meeting room. It had a long wooden table and swivel chairs positioned all around. Name plaques stood in front of every chair except for the one at the end of the table. To Percy's surprise, Hazel did not take the seat at the head of the table – she took the one to its left. He read the name plaque: _Jason Grace. _They'd apparently decided to respect him and not snatch away his seat at first opportunity. Dakota sat opposite Hazel on the absent Jason's other side, and Reyna beside Dakota.

"Where should I sit?" Percy looked around at the chairs, and made a move for the one with no plaque at the end.

"Yeah, sit there." Reyna was at least five meters away from Percy at the other end of the table.

There was a burst of chattering outside, and the other demigod consuls filed into the Council Room. There was a roughly even mix of boys and girls, of races and nationalities. Percy did a quick head count: there were sixteen consuls. Sixteen consuls for fifty demigods – he assumed it was fifty, there were around that many present at the other day's Legion Assessment. He then remembered that Legion Assessment only involved the First and Second Legions.

On Percy's left was an African-American boy, and to his left was a Caucasian boy. They were both young, and Percy assumed they were Fifth Legion. He read their name plaques: _Lee Smith _and _Frederich _something-or-the-other-Percy-couldn't-pronounce. Jeremy Gold was seated beside Hazel, and another First Legion boy on his other side. Percy'd originally assumed they sat according to legion – now he wondered how they'd decided the seating arrangement in this room. He guessed that a lot of fighting had been involved.

Hazel stood, and silence fell. "Let's begin the council meeting."

**AN: I hope that was okay. I seem to have lots of filler chapters, cause I love fillers! :D If you want the plot to move fast, just request it. I might or might not follow your judgment, because I love fillers too much. **

**~ Eliza **


	13. Answers

**Author's note: I promise that the goddess will reveal herself in this chapter. By the way, Percy's necklace has 5 beads because this story happens a year after TLO. **

"Who is the goddess visiting us today?" One of the girls sitting halfway up the table raised a hand and addressed Hazel.

"The goddess Minerva." Hazel glanced at Reyna out of the corner of her eye. "Right, so as you know, the goddess has specially requested the audience of Perseus Jackson. In fact, this visit will not be similar to the normal ones, where our showcase will first formally greet the goddess, then all children will take turns to meet her. This time, her children may have a brief audience with her, but she made it clear to me that her reason for coming to camp is to speak to Percy."

Percy noticed that he got a lot of dirty looks. It didn't matter; he would be the one to meet the goddess.

Someone raised their hand. "How will we determine how much time each child gets to spend with Minerva? I refuse to tolerate any more Legion sequencing. Campers in my Legion have planned a protest if that carries on."

"The children of Minerva will settle it among themselves," Hazel said. "I am trying to be as fair as possible. All other students must be evacuated from the Main Building area. You, as consuls, will supervise and ensure that not a single living soul is within the vicinity of the Main Building at the time. Preferably, the lake and training grounds would be avoided entirely. Campers can return to their quarters or proceed to the amphitheater should they need a venue for extra training. Reyna will lead Consul Group I to relocate the campers west, Kieron will lead Consul Group II in shifting campers east."

Reyna nodded, and so did a boy seated in the second half of the table. Hazel turned her gaze directly on Percy. "Now, we have no clue of what the goddess would like to speak to you about. We only know that if this proves you are a liability to the camp, you will be immediately removed."

Wow. That was convenient. Percy had been planning to escape, anyways. Being dismissed would make everything so much easier. He stared back at Hazel, trying not to look scheming.

"Furthermore, the goddess has disclosed to me that she is on an unauthorized visit," Hazel said. "We should be as low-key as possible whilst giving the goddess the proper amount of respect. You are not to inform any of the other campers about this. Now, please proceed to relocate the campers."

The other consul members stood up with some murmuring and got out of the room, shooting Percy a few resentful looks. Hazel stood and faced Reyna. "I think it best if you do not meet Minerva."

Reyna shot Hazel a surprised look. "Why not?"

"The other children of Minerva are angry about you meeting her, already," Hazel said. "They think Minerva gives you preferential treatment because you are a more skilled fighter. Tension is already so strong, I don't want it to get worse."

"So you're saying that I shouldn't meet my mother because of what other campers think?" Reyna asked angrily. "I don't give a damn what they think. I need to ask my mother for advice."

"Reyna, I'm not exactly having the easiest time," Hazel said. "You do know that I got attacked yesterday, don't you? I beg you to think for me, just a bit."

Reyna's fingers spun quickly and her spear lengthened. Hazel's hand jumped to her waist to the handle of her sword, but she did not draw it. "You're above this, Reyna." Reyna did not move her spear as she leveled it, preparing to strike.

"Guys." Percy cut in, deciding it was time he reminded them he was in the room. "Hold it."

"Stay out of this, Perseus," Reyna said. "I need to deal with Hazel."

"You're too used to preferential treatment when Jason was our praetor, Reyna," Hazel said. "You need to snap out of it. Jason is gone. Our camp is on the brink of a revolution. Use some of that famed intelligence, and think clearly."

Percy walked over to Reyna and grabbed the spear from her. She spun at once, and tried to stab at Percy. It was a fatal move. The spear hit his skin and broke into pieces. She glared at him, her expression shocked and hurt at the same time. "That was a gift from my mom, you bastard."

"Leave him be," came another voice from the door. Instinctively, Percy turned around, along with Hazel and Reyna, still gripping her broken spear.

A tall woman that looked rather familiar and also a bit like Reyna was standing in the golden archway. She wore normal traveling clothes, and looked very much like a regular hiker in combat boots. However, without having to be told, Percy knew that she was the goddess Athena. Or Minerva.

"Mom – " Reyna was at a loss for words. Hazel bowed. "I'm sorry that you had to witness that, Lady Minerva." She stepped forwards. "We will escort you to the lounge immediately."

"There's no need for that," Minerva said calmly. She was looking at Percy with very intimidating gray eyes. "This room will do."

"Then, Reyna and I will take our leave at once." Hazel gripped Reyna's hand and pulled her towards the door.

"No, you may stay," Minerva said. Nodding, Hazel and Reyna sat down on either side of Percy at the end of the table. Minerva took the seat at the head of the table, opposite Percy. The goddess regarded Percy. "You haven't changed much, demigod."

"We've met before?" asked Percy, nonplussed.

"Yes." Minerva – no, Athena said. "Do you know why you are here?"

"No," Percy answered honestly.

"You were sent here by Juno, better known to you as Hera." Athena studied him carefully with those intense gray eyes. "I suspect that sooner or later she will give you your memory back, so that cannot be prevented."

"What do you mean, it can't be prevented? You mean you _want _to prevent it?"

"Of course. You may not recall anything, Perseus, but you and I – our previous meetings involved disagreement."

"Oh."

"This was a very risky gamble on her part, and I do not approve," Athena said. "However, I cannot entirely remove what has been done, and I have to instead help her plan succeed. Jason has already been to your camp, and he is now on a quest of his own."

Reyna gasped. "_My _camp?" Percy said.

"The camp you come from. I think you know where it is."

"New York City," Percy realized. Athena neither confirmed nor corrected him.

"So – Jason is at the camp where Percy comes from. There is another camp for demigods," Hazel said unsurely, seeking confirmation.

"A camp for Greek demigods," Reyna realized. Athena gave her a rare smile. "Yes, Reyna. Percy is a Greek demigod. He is here not of his own choice, but to make peace with both camps."

"That would explain the training," Reyna said quietly. "And the necklace. And the reason why he survived – but why now? Why only now?"

Athena, of course, being the goddess of wisdom, understood. "Because a great evil is rising, child. You do not need to know about this just yet. You must achieve peace between both camps first, and Percy is your key to doing so."

"Can you guide us there, mother?" Reyna asked.

"No," Athena said. "Zeus has forbidden any interference. He will not listen to me and do what is best for us. If he were to discover that Percy had been transported to camp by a god, consequences would be dire. No, you have to find the camp on your own means. I hope that after I have told you this, you will have a clue of what to do so you may quickly find your friends."

"Lady Minerva," Hazel said hesitantly. "Are you saying that Greek demigods really exist? Why haven't we ever met them?"

"Zeus will soon discover that I have gone," Athena said. "Remember my words, demigods. Find the other camp, and make peace. You must have an alliance before you can defeat the enemy, this time."

In a glittering supernova of light, Athena dematerialized. Percy stared at the empty space where she had been.

"So, Percy. Is this related to your lifeline thing?" Reyna asked him. Percy stared back at her blankly. "Lifeline?"

"The one you told me about last night," Reyna pushed. "The one about the blonde girl pulling you out of the river?" Percy still looked like he had no idea what he was talking about.

"I don't remember anything vaguely like that," Percy said. "Anyway, we gotta leave like, right now. To find the other camp."

"You cannot leave immediately," Hazel cut in. "You're not packed for a quest. You have no preparations. Since Minerva has indirectly issued a quest, I guess that you can leave tomorrow morning, at first light."

Percy nodded in agreement. "Sure." He got up and started to move off again, and there was a change in his manner. He now seemed to have some purpose, instead of the aimlessness of the past few days.

Once he was out of the room, Reyna looked at Hazel uncertainly. "Why do you think he can't remember the lifeline thing? Still suffering from amnesia?"

"Unlikely," Hazel answered. "There's no reason for Juno to wipe his mind _again_. It's impossible."

"Then there's no other explanation!" Reyna sounded frustrated.

Percy walked off, not quite sure what they meant. He really didn't remember anything about a blonde girl, or falling into a lake. It didn't make any sense.

Seconds later, Reyna and Hazel burst out of the room. "It's Legion training now," Hazel informed Percy. "We'll discuss your companions for the quest later, but we have to proceed."

"What companions?" Percy asked suspiciously.

"Each hero is allowed two companions whenever they go on a quest," Hazel explained. "You have to pick two."

"One, actually," Reyna said. "Are you kidding? I'm definitely going. I deserve it, after taking care of this guy for the past few days."

"I didn't need taking care of," Percy retorted. "You ordered me about, and I complied."

Reyna flushed. She might seem very old, but she was actually still younger than him. "Regardless, I'm going. You'll only have to pick one other companion."

"I would volunteer," Hazel said. "I want Jason back as much as you do, I'm tiring of this praetor position. However, I have to manage the camp while you are away."

Percy thought hard, but only one person came to mind. He refused to suggest it immediately though, and shrugged. "I can't think of anyone. Let's go for training or whatever first, and I'll find someone else later."

**AN: tell me what you think. Review, and the next chapter comes faster.**


	14. Legion Training

**Note: Not all of you are going to like what's coming up in this chapter, or where I'm going with this.**

The glade behind the creek, on the edge of the woods, was marked out in a circular manner and surrounded by tall pine trees. It was roughly the size of half a football field, more than enough space to accommodate the twenty or so teens standing in a circle along the border, weapons held up, watching the girl in the center of the ring, Hazel Dalton. Instead of the golden gladius that Percy had seen Hazel wield previously in battle, she held carved bow and arrow she'd held that first time he'd seen her, the quiver full of blunt sticks. Hazel's caramel hair was plaited as usual in her fishtail braid.

Percy stood on the edge of the creek, in between Alex, son of Mercury, and another blond dude he'd identified as one of the demigod consuls from the giveaway tattoo on his arm. Scanning the people in the circle briefly, Percy identified twelve boys including himself, and ten girls including Hazel. Across the circle from him was Reyna, who refused to meet his eyes.

Hazel held the bow and arrow towards the sky and fired a shot towards the heavens. Instantly, all campers moved in the same direction like a mob swarming a victim. Only Percy was left standing behind, clueless. One guy, Kenneth, caught the blunt stick and he held it high above his head. Everyone else resumed their original positions, and watched as Kenneth strapped the blunt stick to the inside of his forearm.

Hazel fired another, then another, until she had fired five sticks. Five different campers managed to get a stick, including Dakota. The moment the last person to get a stick, the blond dude originally beside Percy, finished strapping the stick to his forearm, the fighting began. Everyone swarmed the people with the sticks, attacking ruthlessly. Percy figured that the aim of this exercise was to win a fight with one of the baton holders. Hazel was battling Dakota herself, and Percy couldn't resist the urge to move in and triumph Dakota and her overlarge ego. He moved in.

Dakota was stabbing furiously with her iron sword, dodging Hazel's fired blunt arrows. She closed in with her blade, and Hazel knocked her in the solar plexus with the corner of her bow. Dakota stumbled, but kept her sword up to guard the stick. She saw Percy approaching. "Stay out of this, Percy," she said angrily before straightening up to fight Hazel's vicious onslaught of attacks. It seemed like too many had told him that over the past days at this camp, which he would thankfully be leaving the next day.

Percy turned away from the fights, since it seemed like no one was free enough to combat him anyways.

'Watch out, Percy," Percy heard someone warning him – Dakota? What? He spun around to see Alex, son of Mercury, take a shot at him with the golden gladius. He had a stick strapped to his forearm, but Percy wasn't interested in the stick. Alarmed at the abruptness of the unprecented attack, he lunged back with Riptide, narrowly avoiding what would have been a shot to knock him unconscious.

_Why would Alex attack? He had more than enough on him. _Percy already knew the answer to that question. Indeed, nobody else was intervening to try to snatch the baton, instead most people had crowded around to watch the fun. His battlefield hyperactivity activated, Percy could suddenly notice every single detail. He could see each individual face of the onlookers and their expressions, without losing focus on the fight. It was probably a combination of his unusual … condition, so to speak, along with the demigod reflexes. Percy saw that Hazel had won her fight with Dakota – what? How? – and that everyone was watching. He could see Reyna holding a plain golden spear now that he'd broken her own. Recalling that, Percy felt a brief surge of remorse – after all, it _was _a gift from her mom, and Percy would be pretty mad at anyone who broke Riptide.

Alex retaliated, and Percy redirected his train of thought to the fight. He saw Alex feint to the left, and instantly blocked his sword on the right. Alex tried a recovery spin, but Percy avoided that by taking a step to the left and jabbing, forcing Alex to lose valuable momentum and redirect his sword. Then, catching the hilt of Alex's sword on his, he did the disarming maneuver again – the one he'd used to defeat Dakota. As Alex's sword dropped feebly to the grass, Percy grabbed the stake.

Nobody applauded. "You keep using that move," Dakota remarked. The other campers turned away, showing no emotion. Alex stood before Percy, panting.

Since all the wooden stakes had been taken from their original owners, Hazel collected them all back. "Get a partner."

Everyone quickly paired up; Reyna with Dakota, Alex with the blond dude. Soon, Percy was the only one partnerless, of course, so Hazel walked over to join him. All eyes were on her as she shouted out the command. "Now."

The fighting began instantly. Metal clanged, feet thudded against the soft green grass as people leapt to the side, dodging, whirling, thrusting. Hazel wasn't much of a challenge, Percy had her down in three moves. It wasn't that he was incredibly fit or agile, but somehow he knew what to do and the adrenaline just pumped him forwards. When Hazel was done, she stepped back immediately. "Nice."

"Thanks," said Percy awkwardly, feeling it was the first compliment he'd ever gotten. At least, it was the first he'd gotten since he woke up. "So, uh, can you warn me about the next activity before I get trampled underfoot?"

Hazel grinned half-heartedly. "Sorry 'bout that. No more activities, we're just fighting to win this one; extremely straightforward. That's what our Legion Training is all about, basically – competition."

"Then where do campers get the knowledge or means to fight well?" Percy inquired, feeling out of his depth.

"By the time we hit First Legion we're expected to know everything for ourselves, or practice and research ourselves," Hazel told him. "Some of us are instructors for the other legions, like I'm the Archery instructor, and Alex is the Latin instructor."

"So who's the swordfighting instructor?"

"Jason Grace," Hazel answered. "But now he's been replaced by Dakota and Alex, who take different legions. At first, they were both voted to be the instructor, and had to share classes, but unfortunately they fought more with each other than with the trainees."

Percy grinned. He could picture that. "That's – "

Hazel turned to the other campers, who had done. The defeated fighters had all taken a step back, out of the marked circle. The winners paired themselves up, and fought on. As a loser, Hazel had to step back, and Percy found himself facing Dakota. He smirked. "I thought you'd lost your edge – didn't you just lose to Hazel?"

"A slip," Dakota brushed off, her tone sarcastic. "I'm not going to argue with you."

"Why not?"

"Cause I can't beat you anyways," she said in a low tone.

"Glad you know it." Percy grabbed her sword in a lock and pointed it at her throat.

There were six campers left – Alex, Kenneth, and three girls Percy didn't know the names of. Alex and Kenneth swiftly paired up, and the girls quarreled over who'd have to end up with Percy. Eventually, one of them with blonde hair turned around, annoyed, and walked over to Percy.

She was aggressive, but no contest for Percy's Curse of Achilles.

The final three campers were Alex, Percy and one of the two girls. The remaining girl was extremely pretty, with brightest red hair like fire, and wide blue eyes like gemstones.

"Alex and Irise," shouted Hazel.

Percy moved to a side while the other two sparred in the center of the ring. Alex was fast, and the Irise was faster. Her red hair reflected copper and gold in the sun, sparkling like diamonds. She was tall for a girl.

"Irise and Percy," called Hazel. The girl with the knife looked at him, appraising him and giving him a friendly winning smile. "Hey."

"Hey." Percy stepped into the ring.

"Go easy on me?" Irise asked. "I'm not that great of a fighter."

"You made it here," Percy pointed out. "So you can't be that bad."

"I had terrible partners." Irise grinned at two girls outside the circle. "Sorry!"

"Enough with the small talk," Hazel instructed. "Begin."

Irise began circling quickly, and not knowing how else to respond, Percy circled. He kept trying to draw his sword, but it was impossible to do so while watching her footsteps in this manner. She was moving in a very unpredictable pattern, her hand at her waist beside the sapphire handle of her knife. Percy's hand gripped Riptide tightly, sweating. He needed to quickly uncap this pen and end the fight.

So on Irise's next pace, Percy took a step diagonally backwards and uncapped Riptide. The moment his foot moved, Irise whipped out her dagger and tried to move in. A bit of knowledge from goodness-knows-where resounded in his mind: When you've got the shorter blade, get in close.

Well, in this case, he _didn't _have the shorter blade, so it only made sense for him to keep a distance. Percy matched her footsteps, distancing them evenly while trying to get in jabs. Irise was faster than Alex, but she didn't have the power of his lunges. She also didn't have Dakota's instincts. Percy saw Irise's aqua eyes narrow in concentration as she tried in vain to employ the tactics she knew. Of course, her tactics wouldn't work against Percy, who had been trained at a different camp altogether. As Percy made another cross, Irise did the last thing she should have – she threw the knife at Percy. It was just too bad for her that Percy had better reflexes than she had, and that the creek happened to be right behind where he was standing. Her beautiful knife with its sapphire-plated handle sailed over Percy's head and landed in the creek, sinking to the bottom. Irise stood there, defenceless and weaponless. Percy angled his sword at Irise's throat saw not only the defeat but also a staggeringly evident sense of loss and frustration.

This time, the applause echoed through the forest and around the camp. Percy went straight to the water and bent down, reaching a hand into the water. His fingers reunited with the water, and it gave him that overwhelming sense of belonging. Percy flexed his hand, and the water moved in circular and star patterns, and the knife zoomed into his hand. He lifted his hand from the water, the colour of the sapphire hilt matching the clear blue water perfectly. Standing up, Percy walked back over to the ring and handed the dagger to a stunned-looking Irise, who smiled hesitantly, the smile lighting up her entire face.

"I'm guessing … Apollo? Ath-Minerva?" Percy tried, and Irise shook her head with a laugh. "Wrong."

"So … you're a child of Hephaestus, I mean Vulcan. Doesn't seem likely, though. Ares – Mars? Venus?" 

"I'm flattered," Irise said to his last guess, and Percy half-smiled awkwardly. "But no, I'm not a child of any of them."

Percy pondered, then his expression morphed. "Don't tell me you're a child of one of those gods that don't get their own living accommodation for their children."

"Thankfully, I'm not," Irise said. "Though I think that's seriously messed up – I mean, what if a child of a minor god _is _good enough for First Legion, but doesn't make it just because there aren't any rooms for them? The whole corridor idea is pretty, but it isn't fair."

Percy agreed whole-heartedly. "Someone needs to fix that. You guys have been living with this system for – how long? A century?"

"Nobody knows how old this camp is, exactly," Irise said. "And you still haven't guessed my godly parent."

Percy looked wildly around for inspiration. The two of them were walking along the wooden bridge over the river, and the sun was setting on the horizon. This was the time for them to do their own activities of "self-improvement and skill honing" quoth Reyna, but Percy had no idea what skills he possessed – canoeing? Jet-skiing? Nothing seemed likely. Irise wasn't doing anything, but she hadn't mentioned whether she was skipping her own activities or she just didn't have any.

At the far end of the bridge, Alex was walking into the Main Building, its roof turning orange in the light. "Mercury?" suggested Percy. Irise shook her head, a smile tugging playfully on the corners of her lips, and Percy sighed. "I give up."

"I'm a daughter of Ceres," Irise told him. "Goddess of the harvest."

"That's nice, it was going to be my next guess."

"Sure," Irise said, smirking. "You weren't about to guess a maiden goddess like Diana or Vesta?"

"Who's Vesta?"

"Goddess of the home and hearth. She tends to the hearth of the Olympus throne room, and occupies the twelfth throne."

Percy's brow furrowed. "Vesta … Hestia. She has a throne on Olympus?"

"Of course, silly. She's the last Olympian, but she still _is _an Olympian!" Irise told him. "Otherwise, would she have an honorary space in Building I?"

Percy thought hard. "So … the twelve thrones of Olympus are occupied by Zeus, Poseidon, Hades – "

"Pluto doesn't have a throne on Olympus," Irise cut in. "It's Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Ceres, Mars, Minerva, Apollo, Diana, Vulcan, Venus, Mercury and Vesta."

Percy ticked them off on his fingers. "Oh … kay … wait, what about Dionysus?"

"Dionysus?" Irise asked confusedly. "Never heard of him." She glanced at Percy, who wore that troubled expression he had earlier when he'd first come out of his meeting with Minerva. "Never mind about them. You've got to enjoy your last day at camp, since you're leaving tomorrow, I heard?"

"Enjoy myself? Here?" Percy asked sarcastically. "Anyways, news sure travels fast."

"Camp isn't so bad, Percy," Irise said seriously. "You've just got to give it a chance."

"In the few days that I've been here, I've been scolded or shouted at more times than I can count for no reason at all, treated in a hostile manner, been the victim of mob psychology, and been completely ostracized. How can I give it any more of a chance? Everyone I've met here – Dakota, Reyna, Hazel, and the rest – treat me like either a lower life-form, or a moron, or an alien. This camp is filled with arrogant, narrow-minded people."

"C'mon, you can't say that," Irise said. "I'm not so bad, am I?"

Percy glanced over at her, and grudgingly said, "No, you're not." 

"You _can _enjoy camp, if you just learn to appreciate our customs the way they are. Maybe you're the one being narrow-minded?" Irise suggested, but it didn't sound offensive the way she said it – at least not to Percy. "I understand that we aren't in the best shape right now, thanks to Jason's disappearance, but camp life is still great. We have independence, and lots of freedom in choice of what we want to do with our time."

"I guess," Percy said. "Now we're supposed to be – what, 'honing our given skills'? I don't think I have any."

"I skipped my own session," Irise confided, and Percy couldn't help but feel approval. "The last time I did it was because I was upset that someone, well, how shall I put it – dumped me. I went into the forest, and I met Vesta there."

"What, no huge ceremonial procession to welcome her to camp?"

"Vesta does her visits discreetly," Irise said. "Only those who notice her can speak to her, and many people think Vesta is useless, because she isn't the most powerful goddess. Personally, I think she's just as important as any of the others."

"Because hope survives best at the hearth," Percy interjected, not quite sure where that came from. Irise nodded in agreement. "I agree. Not many people can see that."

They'd arrived at the end of the bridge, near to the amphitheater and dining cave. Irise sat down on the banks of the lake and stared at the open water. "So, I guess Reyna and Hazel will be going on your quest? What's it for, anyways?"

"I've got to find my past, where I come from," Percy said, sitting next to her. "Reyna's coming, yeah, but just because she wants to find Jason." Why was he even explaining himself? He didn't owe Irise any explanations, even if she was nice. "Hazel's got to stay back and run the camp."

Irise was quiet, staring at the lake surface. Percy remembered what he'd mentioned earlier – he still had to pick the third quest member. He'd earlier thought of Dakota, with her shadow-travelling and deadly daughter-of-Hades powers, but now the idea of traveling with _two _arrogant consuls who looked down on him didn't seem appealing at all.

"I haven't actually picked the third quest member yet," Percy said, hesitantly. Was he sure? Would Irise be of any use on their quest? "Why don't you come?"

"Seriously?" Irise glanced at him. "I'm not particularly skilled at anything besides gardening, or nature."

"Anyone who can see what Vesta is about is far from useless," Percy said. "And I need someone to make traveling with Reyna bearable."

Irise grinned. "Then I'm definitely in."

"Nice." Percy meant it.

A loud horn blared thrice in the distance, in the direction of the dining cave. "That'll be the dinner call," Irise said, getting up. "Let's go."

"Percy!" Someone called from behind. Percy glanced around to see Reyna, Hazel and Dakota approaching quickly, running. "Hold up."

**AN: So, if you want to know what happens next, if you've got CC, if you have compliments, review. In any case, I hope you'll keep reading even with my crappy last few chapters D: People who have stuff they want to say in private, just PM me. I always reply to messages within a day. Anyway, thanks so much for reading this chapter! :) As of now I'm gunning for 200 reviews within the next chapter, so please help me out!**

**~ Eliza**

**P. S. On another subject, I've recently been browsing the HoO archive for other SoN stories, and I've been severely pissed off. There are so many great stories out there with less than a hundred reviews, yet there are crappy ones that have 300-400 reviews. Not that I'm hating on any stories, but I wish that people would give the less-reviewed stories a chance! **


	15. Leaving

**Author's Note: I'm wondering if anyone still remembers this story?**

**Anyway, I've been ridiculously busy for the past months, and then I heard that the Son of Neptune was being released soon and figured I should at least try to get up one more chapter. **

**This chapter isn't very good, I think, but I hope you still read & review! -Eliza.**

Hazel glanced from Percy to Irise, then apparently decided not to care what they were doing. "We've decided that Alex and Reyna are to accompany you on your quest tomorrow, so you've got permission to use the Discussion room in our Main Building now to quickly formulate a basic plan." She looked back at Irise. "Irise, what activity are you supposed to be at now?"

"I skipped today," Irise said nonchalantly.

Hazel sighed. She, too, must have been getting tired of bossing everyone around, realized Percy, and he felt vague – extremely vague – stirrings of sympathy. "C'mon Percy."

He then realized that Irise was looking at him, expecting him to say something. "Irise is coming on the quest," Percy told Hazel. Reyna and Dakota both looked at him. "What?" Reyna asked. She looked from Percy to Irise. "You two got that close?"

"You expect me to go with Alex? Guy's tried to kill me more than once. And I always thought the quest leader should get to pick their companions."

"Where'd you get that idea from?" Dakota asked, as though the concept were ridiculous. "The Oracle chooses the companions, but since she's not here, current camp-leader will decide on the people."

_Reyna_

She actually felt sorry for Percy sometimes.

Reyna was neither stupid nor unreasonable. She knew exactly what Percy was going through, but it didn't make the situation any easier for her to accept. From the moment she'd met him, she knew that Jason had been sent to the place Percy came from. Judging from the necklace and other things he'd mentioned, he'd come from another demigod camp. Reyna had always known that they couldn't be the only camp for half-bloods, and Percy had clearly been trained in a different way and lived in a different environment. Some elements of life had remained the same, but otherwise, everything had been turned inside-out for him. He had been plucked out of his life and thrown into a foreign environment full of strangers. Reyna sympathized with him, but she didn't show any of it.

The fact that Percy found most of their practices harsh and barbaric actually comforted Reyna. It meant that he was used to a more comfortable, less stressful environment and Jason would be fine. He was used to physical hardship, whereas Percy didn't seem to be.

There was something different about Percy, though. Even Jason couldn't move with the instinct and power and accuracy that he could. Was it true that he'd taken a dip in the Styx? For what purpose, and how? Percy had almost mentioned to her that he'd dreamt of Jason, and provided a pretty accurate description of him. Reyna never had such dreams. Unless Percy was putting up a pretty convincing act and faking his amnesia, he was telling the truth about his strange dream.

Most of all, though, she could sympathize with Percy because she'd lost Jason, and was sure that Percy had left someone behind as well. She didn't know if Percy could remember whoever he'd left, but she was sure she would be missing Percy as much as she missed Jason herself.

Seeing Percy stand next to Irise now, Reyna felt an inexplicable surge of dread, and her heartbeat raced in spite of herself. "You two got that close?" she heard herself say.

Dakota and Percy were quarreling, _again. _What would it take for the two of them to just shut up? There were so many bigger problems at hand. And the longer they delayed, the later they might be able to find Jason. And the longer Jason was left alone with no memory at another camp, the higher the likelihood that he would … end up in the same situation Percy was in.

Hazel turned to Reyna. "What do you think, should I allow Irise to go with Percy? They might lack prowess."

"Let her come," Reyna finally said. She didn't know why, but maybe she felt Percy deserved a break. He'd been through a lot, and there was no reason that the three of them would be unable to handle any monsters. "We should start preparing now."

Hearing her words, Dakota turned to Reyna with an outraged look. "You're serious?" Reyna nodded, and Dakota looked from Reyna to Hazel and sighed. "I don't understand you guys, why must so many exceptions be made for him?"

"Exceptions must be made for Jason," corrected Hazel shortly. She turned to the trio. "You guys should start planning now."

Reyna nodded half-heartedly and turned towards the Main Building. Hazel and Dakota left for their separate activities, and Reyna could hear Percy and Irise conversing behind her. The hallway of Main Building was empty, but there was lots of noise coming from upstairs – people talking, craft being shifted around, even the clanging of metal against metal. She took the familiar route up the right flight of stairs and through the domed corridor, passing by the row of music and art studios which were probably occupied. Meeting Room V, at the end of the second corridor, was empty as always – she used to use it as a secret meeting spot with Jason in between activities. Reyna held the door open for Percy and Irise as they entered.

_Percy_

Meeting Room V was noticeably less extravagant than the one reserved for godly visits. It was a regular, squarish room with wooden parquet flooring and a few circular tables surrounded by four chairs each. Reyna took a seat first – she'd been quiet throughout the walk there, which was surprising. Percy sat next to Irise, and he waited for Reyna to begin her pep talk.

Unsurprisingly, she did. "I think we should begin the search in New York City, since that's the only place Percy remembers," she started.

"Didn't you say it was impossible?" Percy cut in, unable to resist.

Reyna shrugged off the accusation easily. "We've got no other leads," she reminded him. She glanced at Irise. "New York City's known for being dangerous, are you in?"

Irise shrugged. "I'm a dangerous girl."

"Since we don't have much in mind, we'll just have to find a place that Percy finds familiar, and investigate from there," Reyna suggested. "New York's very far away, though, it's on the East Coast. We'll travel by air?"

"No," Percy said. The idea just didn't roll with him.

Reyna nodded. "By sea, then. I'll see if we can get the camp's ship." She crossed the room to the full-length cupboard at the far end, and rummaged about, producing a map. "Percy, I guess you'll be in charge. I'll work out the best route for us. Meanwhile, you guys should go practice fighting each other, cause we need to work out our battle formation."

Percy stood up hesitantly. Reyna was bent low over the map, studiously marking out the routes and places to avoid. She was too studious. Percy could sense that she was more fragile than she was letting on. He cleared his throat and turned towards Irise. "Where do we practice?" he asked nobody in particular.

"There's a room next door," Reyna said. "Go on." It seemed that she wanted Percy and Irise to leave.

Irise smiled and went towards the door, motioning for Percy to follow. Percy lingered slightly, wanting to say something comforting, then turned around. After all, he had no idea what to say, and he knew nothing about Reyna's situation before Jason left. It wasn't his position to comfort her.

Once they were out of earshot, Percy spoke. "Reyna seems to be in bad shape. Did anything happen to her?"

"She was strongly affected when Jason disappeared, we think," Irise said matter-of-factly. "They were in a relationship. The whole camp was buzzing about it when they first started dating again – it'd been coming for a long time. If I'm not wrong, they went on a total of three or four quests together? They'd dated and broken up before, in any case, they had loads of history. They finally started dating last summer, after they led the assault on Krios and brought Mount Othrys down."

Her story made perfect sense, and gave Percy a strange feeling of déjà vu. He followed Irise into the next room – a gym-like room this time, with mirrors on the walls and a cushioned floor. Metre-long deadly sharp spikes protruded from all four walls at regular, two-metre intervals. The place reminded Percy of a torture chamber.

Irise unsheathed her knife. "When we're fighting monsters, you want to take defense?"

"No way, I'll take point," Percy said, uncapping Riptide. Irise moved in, and Percy defended, not really trying. He was thinking about what Irise said earlier about Reyna – that they'd led an assault on _Krios, _at _Mount Othrys_ – he was definitely familiar with these two terms. He couldn't have been a part of it, for he definitely wasn't part of the Roman Camp.

Percy quickly dismissed the idea. It was, after all, ridiculous.

Irise lunged forwards, and Percy refocused his attention on the fight.

* * *

Sixteen hours later, they were en route to New York City. Reyna had taken care of almost everything, which Percy was grateful for. He'd apologized for breaking her spear, and she'd accepted the apology, but he still felt bad. How had he not felt the remorse before? Percy assumed it wasn't like him to feel nothing after hurting others, but he preferred to assume that he was, or had been, a good person.

The ship cruised on the waves, much faster and smoother than any normal ship could have gone. Percy guessed that the kids from the Vulcan cabin had tinkered with it. The boat was called the _SS Jupiter, _and it was an olden-type ship with sails, masts and steering. It was perfect. Nothing could've been easier than to drive this ship – it responded to his every command. Reyna retreated into the cabin after giving Percy her map, and Irise had gone in to work out strategies with her. The ocean was clear, thanks to Reyna who'd worked out the best route to avoid mortal ships. There was no place more calm and serene.

There hadn't been a send-off from the camp, not that Percy wanted or expected one. Hazel had dropped by after breakfast to make sure Percy, Reyna and Irise were all prepared with their waterproof and fireproof necessity bags and then she was off. Dakota was her usual, unbending self. She'd finished breakfast extremely quickly then strode out of the dining cave, black sword in hand. Percy wondered where she was going, but she didn't say a word to him throughout breakfast. It might be the last time he ever saw her, he reasoned, and thought she ought to have at least wished him a smooth quest.

Although Percy was the quest leader, Reyna was the one who knew what to do. Percy let her do what she wanted. Ever since they'd talked about the quest, Percy noticed, Reyna had become significantly quieter and always appeared to be deep in thought. Percy found himself worrying about her, and told himself to snap out of it.

The clouds were darkening ahead, and Percy made sure the boat was on the right course before going back into the cabin. Reyna was sleeping on one of the bunks, and Irise was running through one of the guidebooks Reyna'd brought along. "Found anything useful?" Percy asked, sitting down beside her.

"Not really." Irise's brow furrowed as she scrutinized the page. She clearly wasn't the type for reading. "But there's something here – a lot of incidents actually happen around Long Island. It's listed here that there was a minotaur chasing a demigod there, but this account isn't specific. I think we might find something there."

"Alright." Percy instinctively felt that she was on the right track. He glanced over at Reyna, and folded the page of the guidebook. He'd have to ask her when she awoke.

**A/N: How was it? **


End file.
